| Time | Speaker | Text |
|---|---|---|
| 00:00:06.65 | Lucinda Eubanks | Anytime. or |
| 00:00:08.28 | Morgan Pierce | to the community. |
| 00:00:08.48 | Lucinda Eubanks | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 00:00:09.84 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you for your patience. |
| 00:00:11.27 | Larissa Alton | Thank you. |
| 00:00:11.30 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 00:00:15.13 | Maria | Okay, the public is joining right now. So. Looks like everybody's in. |
| 00:00:21.75 | Kristina Feller | Great. Thank you so much, Maria. All right. And we're recording. Maria? |
| 00:00:32.65 | Maggie Cox | Okay. |
| 00:00:32.97 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the regularly scheduled Planning Commission hearing for Wednesday, June 2, 2021. Director Whelan, can you please call the roll? |
| 00:00:47.08 | Director Whelan | Good evening, Chair Feller and planning commissioners. This meeting is being held pursuant to section three of executive order N-2920 issued by Governor Newsom on March 17th. 2020, and all members are now joining this meeting telephonically through Zoom, and I will now call the roll. Commissioner Junius. Commissioner Luxembourg. |
| 00:01:09.86 | Maria | I'm sorry. |
| 00:01:10.77 | Director Whelan | Commissioner Saad. |
| 00:01:12.24 | Maria | THEM. |
| 00:01:12.88 | Director Whelan | I'm going to try to make sure |
| 00:01:13.98 | Maria | Yeah. |
| 00:01:14.67 | Director Whelan | And Chair Fowler. |
| 00:01:15.90 | Maria | Thank you. |
| 00:01:15.92 | Kristina Feller | Here. |
| 00:01:16.71 | Director Whelan | We have all members of the event and we have a quorum. |
| 00:01:19.50 | Kristina Feller | Terrific. Thank you so much. The next item on the agenda is approval of the agenda. Do we have a motion to approve? |
| 00:01:27.17 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Don't move. Second. |
| 00:01:30.78 | Kristina Feller | Right. Director Whelan? |
| 00:01:33.86 | Director Whelan | Commissioner Luxenberg. |
| 00:01:35.95 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Yes. |
| 00:01:36.37 | Steven Woodside | Thank you. |
| 00:01:37.05 | Director Whelan | Commissioner Junius. |
| 00:01:39.26 | Kristina Feller | Yes. |
| 00:01:40.05 | Director Whelan | Commissioner Saad? |
| 00:01:41.25 | Kristina Feller | Yes. |
| 00:01:41.82 | Director Whelan | Vigsture grafts? |
| 00:01:43.02 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. |
| 00:01:43.68 | Director Whelan | Carefella. Yes. carries 5-0. |
| 00:01:47.05 | Kristina Feller | Terrific. The next item on the agenda is special presentations for this evening and I'm very lucky and honored to both say farewell to our dear former commissioner Morgan Pierce whom we would like to honor this evening, as well as welcoming Andrew Junius, our new commissioner for the planning commission. So with that, I would like to read for the public, a proclamation of the Sausalito Planning Commission recognizing the dedicated service and contributions of Oregon Pierce to the Sausalito community. Whereas through his service on the city of Sausalito commissions and boards, including his appointments to the historic landmarks board from 2010 to 2015, and his service on the planning commission from 2015 to 2021. including his role as chair, In 2018, Morgan Pierce has dedicated untold volunteer hours to the city of Castellito, including his participation in many evening meetings. some ho-hum, some and devoting many, many long nights and weekends of his valuable time. And whereas during his time on the Historic Landmarks Board, the city of Sausalito became a local certified government and Morgan was instrumental in assisting with the development of the historic design guidelines the Marin Ship Historic Survey and Historic Context Statement in addition to his efforts in assisting the city in protecting the machine shop. And whereas in addition to serving on the planning commission during the labor intensive process to update the Sausalito general plan, During day-to-day deliberations, Morgan applied his immense landscape and architectural background in consideration with the utmost care the diversity of species and their habitats and planning and design of projects And whereas when it was his turn to deliberate, Morgan's trademark subtle and wry humor made all ears perk up in order to listen to what he had to say. And whereas furthermore, during development review, Morgan was a pillar of fairness always striving to look for ways to compromise and advance projects to a conclusion in a manner that advocated for both the applicant and the city's municipal codes. And whereas Morgan has also participated in such memorable events as a Sausalito chili cook-off where along with former planning commissioner, Vicki Nichols, he and the historic landmark sports swept the awards courtesy of their amazing chili and speakeasy theme. And whereas a steadfast friend of all pollinators, Morgan's impassioned support for Sausalito's trees and landscapes ensure that our city will be a lovely home. for all birds, butterflies, moths, and bees. Now, therefore, the Sausalito Planning Commission's wishes to wholeheartedly thank Morgan Pierce for his years of service to the city And be it further proclaimed that we all wish Morgan the best of success. in his new role as vice president of Sausalito Beautiful. In witness thereof, I, Christina Feller, the chair of the Sausalito City Planning Commission have here unto my hand and clause the seal of the city of Sausalito to be affixed the second day of June, 2021. Morgan, thank you for everything. Thank you for being a wonderful colleague as well. A lot of words here on a piece of paper and more to be said, I'm sure. |
| 00:05:24.42 | Larissa Alton | of work. |
| 00:05:29.92 | Kristina Feller | with that I'd like to ask If any commissioners have anything to add to that. |
| 00:05:38.83 | Nastassya Saad | I feel like we need to clap. That was really eloquent, and he deserves all the applause. |
| 00:05:41.11 | Kristina Feller | and he deserves all the applause. He does indeed. He does indeed. If there are no other thoughts or comments at this time, I'd like to open this item up for any public comment from any member. of the public who'd like to make a further comment to honor Morgan Pierce and welcome. Commissioner Junius to our planning commission. To do so, you can raise your hand in the Zoom application Or if you're on a phone, you can hit star nine. |
| 00:06:20.76 | Nastassya Saad | May I ask a question, Chair Beller? We sent some words around, I think to Director Whalen. Is that going to be delivered to Um, Morgan Pierce is Is that all written down for him? |
| 00:06:38.18 | Kristina Feller | I will refer to Lily on that for Director Whalen. We've tried to incorporate as much as we could into this proclamation for which Morgan will get a copy of. |
| 00:06:46.77 | Nastassya Saad | Okay. Well, may I just... |
| 00:06:49.67 | Director Whelan | Yeah. We'll get former Commissioner Pierce a copy of the proclamation. And then if you would like your individual contributions as well, I can be happy to send those to Morgan as well. |
| 00:07:01.79 | Nastassya Saad | Okay, that would be great. Yeah, thank you. |
| 00:07:04.79 | Kristina Feller | Great. Well, I see no hands, so I will close public comment at this time. And Morgan, I will thank you once again for tuning in on a Wednesday evening. |
| 00:07:15.71 | Morgan Pierce | Well, Chair Feller, if I may, I would just like to thank this entire body of commissioners and obviously the community development department and city council for this. I'm very humbled by the thanks, so I appreciate that. It has been my honor to serve at the pleasure of city council on both of these boards or both of these commissions for the last 12 years. I have learned a great deal about our community and it's made me much more fond of it and its people. I've made some great friends, some great colleagues, and I feel that Sausalito is in great hands moving forward. So I wish you all great success with all the challenges that you will face moving forward, but know that you will attend to them with a great deal of professionalism and care that our community deserves. So thank you very much. |
| 00:08:08.97 | Kristina Feller | Thank you, Morgan. You inspire us all, so thank you so much for that. And I look forward to seeing you With Sausalito Beautiful, our paths will cross again, my friend. |
| 00:08:18.01 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah. |
| 00:08:19.75 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Director Whelan, I think we're gonna move on to the next item on our agenda, item four, which are public comments on items that are not on the agenda. |
| 00:08:36.81 | Director Whelan | the time to hear from citizens regarding matters that are not on tonight's agenda except in very limited situation state law precludes the planning commission from taking action on or engaging in discussions concerning items of business that are not on the agenda. However, the commission may refer matters not on the agenda to city staff or direct that the subject the agenda is for future meetings. video or audio public participation is limited to three minutes per speaker. If you'd like to make a comment, please raise your hand in the Zoom application. and you'll be called upon when it is your time to speak, Raise your hand from a phone. Please press star nine. We will allow you to unmute yourself and share your video and need to adjust your settings to allow you to have access, so thank you for your patience as we do that, and please state your name for the record before beginning your comments. So again, this is public comments for items not on tonight's agenda. And please raise your hands now. |
| 00:09:31.28 | Kristina Feller | Thank you, Director Whalen. Let me just give everybody a moment if they need to. raise their hand to make comment. I do not see any hands raised at this time. Um, Do you, Director Whalen, see anybody that I am not seeing? |
| 00:09:48.99 | Director Whelan | There are no raised hands. |
| 00:09:50.03 | Kristina Feller | Okay, great. Thank you very much. I will close public comment on items not on the agenda. So that closes item number four. And Director Whalen, I'll hand it over to you to... to get us orientated to the next item. |
| 00:10:06.18 | Director Whelan | Great. So the next item on your agenda are our public hearing items. Before we begin our public hearing item, this is the time for any commissioners to provide declarations regarding any ex parte communications on the public hearing item. |
| 00:10:21.13 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you. Commissioner Luxenberg. |
| 00:10:24.96 | Jeffery Luxenberg | I did not meet with anybody. I did visit the sites for this and the study session, but did not meet with anybody during those visits. So there were no communications whatsoever. |
| 00:10:35.75 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you very much. Commissioner Saad? |
| 00:10:39.19 | Nastassya Saad | Same as commissioner at Luxembourg, I visited both sites. I did not communicate with anybody. |
| 00:10:44.54 | Kristina Feller | Thank you very much. Commissioner Junius. |
| 00:10:47.63 | Richard Graef | Thank you. |
| 00:10:47.68 | Richard Graef | Right. |
| 00:10:47.69 | Kristina Feller | to get it. |
| 00:10:47.78 | Richard Graef | Thank you. |
| 00:10:47.90 | Kristina Feller | that's not going to be. |
| 00:10:47.96 | Richard Graef | to communicate with anybody either. |
| 00:10:49.77 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Vice President Graham. |
| 00:10:52.10 | Richard Graef | No communications. |
| 00:10:54.33 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you. And I have no communications to declare to anybody, although I did visit both sites. So Director Whalen? |
| 00:11:04.65 | Director Whelan | Thank you, commissioners. So the public hearing item tonight is item 5A, which is a request for a condominium conversion permit and tentative map approval. At 195 to 197, I missed a road. and Assistant Planner Larissa Alton will be giving a staff presentation this evening. Good evening, Larissa. |
| 00:11:16.23 | Kevin McGowan | And, |
| 00:11:25.68 | Larissa Alton | Let me get to the right screen real quick. |
| 00:11:32.01 | Larissa Alton | Okay. Thank you, Chair Feller and Planning Commissioners. This item for you tonight is for a tentative map and condo conversion permit at 195197 Hivista Road. The project site is a 16,343 square foot parcel. is zoned two-family residential. It contains an existing two-story side-by-side duplex. Each unit is similar. They are both 1,200 square feet with two bedrooms, one and one and a half baths, and a two-car parking deck. |
| 00:12:16.84 | Larissa Alton | The tentative, proposed tentative map and condo conversion permit. and include this proposed map. including the condos and the common area surrounding the condos. |
| 00:12:35.98 | Larissa Alton | To approve a condo conversion, it has to be in compliance with the general plan. And we look at this particular policy for rental housing conversion. AND I THINK THAT'S A to keeping enough rental housing in Sausalito by limiting the conversion of rental units. from ownership. to ownership or from rental. So no more than 5% of the city's rental stock may be converted to condominiums in any one calendar year. and After research, SETC's determined the possible convertible rental stock in Faustalito is 2,254 units, which is 5%. And 5% of that is 112 units total. per year. |
| 00:13:24.63 | Unknown | you. |
| 00:13:26.54 | Larissa Alton | This is the second condominium conversion considered by the Planning Commission in 2021. On May 5th, the Planning Commission approved a condo conversion for two units at 3739 Crescent Avenue. approval of this condominium conversion would result in a total of four units approved for the conversion for this calendar year. or.0. So, 0.177 of the total rental stock available. So this conversion would be in, consistent with the general plan. We also look at the zoning compliance. The project complies with all the zoning standards for two family residential units or lot. I WANT TO TALK ABOUT It just building standards, height setbacks, Everything that is listed in the zoning ordinance it complies with. It also complies with the regulation in order to preserve a supplier of rental units and affordable housing. 195-197 Hivista is owner-occupied and has been since it was sold in 2016. prior to the purchase in November, 2016, 197 was tenant occupied by the now owners. No displacement of tenants would occur. as a result of the condominium conversion. And this table below is a list of the rental, I think that's a good thing. before it was sold in 2016. And since then it has been owner-occupied. by the applicant. |
| 00:15:07.11 | Larissa Alton | The general condition of the buildings review was done through a physical elements report, including a pest control report and soils report. that indicated the condition of the residential structures and site improvements are accessible in their condition and don't pose any imminent threat. |
| 00:15:24.07 | Kevin McGowan | with any ammunition. |
| 00:15:25.83 | Larissa Alton | There are no outstanding code enforcement cases at 195 and 197 HIDIS-F. Um, staff did receive, um, three late mail items that were included in the agenda. And we would like to address some of the issues that were raised in those letters. Um, The main issue that was brought up to staff in those letters was the maintenance responsibility. of the shared private easement road, which is high Vista. There was a retaining wall. built for repair. on that road. It was issued in 2018. and it was finaled in February, 2021. All the work has been completed. on that retaining wall. which, um... supports the road there. Staff found no nexus between the completed retaining wall project cost allocation, which was some of the issues that were brought up. and the condominium conversion permit. There's no, as I said before, there's no code enforcement cases. and the physical elements report and engineering, geoengineering geotechnical reports support the fact that this overall design and conditions of the condominium conversion achieves a high degree of appearance, quality and safety. There was also mentioned that possible people did not get Public hearing notice. And, um, |
| 00:17:10.38 | Larissa Alton | This is just a copy of the notice that was provided. It was mailed on February 21st, 2021. |
| 00:17:18.94 | Larissa Alton | Staff concludes that the requested findings can be made to approve the tentative minor subdivision map and condominium conversion permit for the conversion of the duplex. into a two unit condominium as described in the draft resolution. Staff recommends that the approval of the draft resolution, which approves the tentative map subdivision, minor subdivision map and condominium conversion permit to convert the two existing units, at 195197 Hivista into two single family condominium units. |
| 00:17:55.07 | Larissa Alton | And that's end of my presentation. |
| 00:17:59.15 | Director Whelan | Dr. Filler, if I could also just to add on to Larissa's presentation, we also did take a look because of the correspondence that we received the late mail received and and made sure that the folks that indicated they didn't get the notice, we double checked our notice list and they were on our notice list. So we did do that double check as well. And we have that notice list Commission would like that to be provided as late now. |
| 00:18:26.24 | Kristina Feller | Thank you so much, Larissa and Director Whalen for the presentation, the information. It certainly, I think helps, the commission here and hopefully the public who are attending or watching from home either now or later on. They can look at the recordings. I think at this time, we're going to open this up for any questions of staff from the commission So any questions you might have, let's... Let me go ahead and call on Commissioner Luxembourg if you'd like to start us off if you have any questions for Larissa. |
| 00:19:05.30 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Yes, I do have a few. Thank you, Chair Feller. My first is approval condition number seven that's being proposed, if this is approved, Larissa talks about a proposed budget for maintenance and operation of common facilities, which I assume would include the road. Have we, not we, but have you, has the Green Development Department seen a draft of it? I know it doesn't have to go until the final plan. but some idea of what they're planning for the maintenance would be helpful. Have you seen anything in that regard? |
| 00:19:42.77 | Larissa Alton | I believe those are referenced in the CC&Rs. which is one of the attachments. It does have sections on maintenance of the common areas. which includes the easement because the easement road goes through their property. So it includes that as well. |
| 00:20:02.24 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Have you seen the budget? It says that they will provide a budget as part of this. |
| 00:20:07.47 | Larissa Alton | I have not seen a budget. |
| 00:20:09.73 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay. The second question is, in one of your slides, you indicated there were no imminent threats to habitation, but the pest reports seem to have a great concern about the beetles that have invested the project. So is that not a cause for concern or? as far as the well-doing of the framing of this building. |
| 00:20:37.59 | Larissa Alton | I believe that was written in as possible condition. that the, you know, bugs would be addressed at that point after the purple of the tentative map. that's a good question. Yeah, it wasn't something. |
| 00:20:52.38 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Yeah, I looked for that, but I may have missed that. I was trying to see if there was a condition on that. My third question is, I just wanted to understand this. So there are three parcels, but both units are on the same parcel. Then there's this sort of strange parcel that goes onto the other side of the road. And a third parcel, is it normal that the units are on one parcel and not sort of subdivided for the land under them? Is that, or am I not understanding how they parceled this out? |
| 00:21:28.25 | Larissa Alton | I believe it's parceled so each unit will have the structure on each unit, plus the land below, directly below it. are each their own separate parcels. And then the common area, which is everything else. that we're going to have is a parcel. or it's, counted as common area. |
| 00:21:49.84 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay, so I'm misreading this plan because it says something about, could you put up that on your screen? There's a parcel one, a parcel two, and a parcel three. And parcel one seems to have both units on it. And then parcel two is this strange uh, thing across the road and then parcel. through that thing. I don't know if I have the numbers right, is the number of things. And then the road runs through all three But you have in your presentation the plan. |
| 00:22:20.04 | Larissa Alton | Yeah, let me pull up a version of that. |
| 00:22:27.40 | Kristina Feller | I think this is a good question, Commissioner Luxenberg. I think we have to get this squared away. So thank you for asking it. |
| 00:22:34.50 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay, so if you move your cursor to the left a little bit, uh more and more right there it says parcel two and that seems to go from the corner up to uh the line that says parcel three and then for some reason they own a little piece on the other side of the road and and then and the rest of it seems to say parcel one so it seems like both units are on parcel one. I'm not familiar with I haven't done been reviewed a lot of condominiums in California. So I guess I'm I'm just trying to educate myself on what this is doing here because it seems like they're both on the same parcel. |
| 00:23:17.18 | Larissa Alton | Thank you. |
| 00:23:17.25 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you. |
| 00:23:17.38 | Larissa Alton | Thank you. I think this might be a good question for the applicant. exactly what the plan is for that. |
| 00:23:22.53 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay. |
| 00:23:26.95 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay, and my last question was, this was completed in 2019. I'm just wondering why it's taken until 2021 to get to this point. This is a pandemic issue or? Why is it taking me? almost two years to got finalized. |
| 00:23:45.12 | Larissa Alton | Well, I took over the project in 2020, at the end of 2020. So I think it's gone through quite a bit of review. as far as I can tell from Public Works and our third party surveyor So it's gone through multiple reviews. |
| 00:24:05.41 | Kevin McGowan | use. |
| 00:24:06.03 | Larissa Alton | leading up to this point. with. maybe long stretches between that. getting and I'm sure COVID had something to do with that long time frame. |
| 00:24:18.82 | Jeffery Luxenberg | And if it was finished in 2019, the general plan for 2019 applies, I guess, but the percentage for the number of units, does that apply? |
| 00:24:19.13 | Larissa Alton | Thank you. I'm not sure. |
| 00:24:32.26 | Jeffery Luxenberg | now in 2021, because that's what it appears, as opposed to when it was submitted. I was just trying to understand how that calculation is made. Yeah, you said that this is the second one this year, which is true. And so does it just it goes with the year that we see it, not the year that it's submitted? |
| 00:24:54.50 | Larissa Alton | I assume it would go with the year when it's approved. So if you approve this, In 2021, it would count against those units. |
| 00:25:04.62 | Jeffery Luxenberg | So if there were too many in 2019, it could have been held off for that reason. |
| 00:25:10.87 | Larissa Alton | That's possible, yeah, I guess if you hold off for a new year. |
| 00:25:13.31 | Kristina Feller | at you. |
| 00:25:15.66 | Larissa Alton | Um, |
| 00:25:16.62 | Kristina Feller | So let's allow the applicant to possibly address that as well. I think that would be helpful. |
| 00:25:26.58 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Anyways, thank you, Chair Cullo. Those are the questions I have at this time. |
| 00:25:30.09 | Kristina Feller | Excellent questions, thank you very much. um commissioner Saad do you have any questions for staff at this time |
| 00:25:36.31 | Nastassya Saad | Well, I had a the same question as Commissioner Luxembourg I had emailed with Larissa and I think hearing what the applicant may say may help as well Larissa had pointed me to the CCNR about the common area I was unsure about what the common area was considered and that that CCNR had basically stated it was everything else outside those parcels so I don don't know if that helps at all, but I, I would love to hear that. And then, and I also had a question on the beetle infestation report cause I think that was from 20, loss I think that was from 2018 so what I was not sure if that was just the report and any work has been done to to offset the recommendation for fumigation or if that was the report is where they have left it and maybe that's a question as well for the applicant. |
| 00:26:29.15 | Larissa Alton | I would address that to the applicant. |
| 00:26:31.60 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 00:26:31.75 | Nastassya Saad | Okay. Yeah, those are all my questions. I'll wait. |
| 00:26:35.14 | Kristina Feller | Right, thank you, Professor Saad, thank you. Commissioner Junius do you have any questions for staff at this time? |
| 00:26:42.46 | Andrew Junius | No real questions, Chair Fowler, but I would follow up on Commissioner Luxembourg's I'm pretty familiar with these condo maps and that is, there's no question in my mind, that's a legally sufficient condominium map under the Subdivision Map Act, It's you know, condominiums are interesting because they don't, they create air spaces, they create things that can actually be separated from the land, and so that's why it looks Strange. We're not subdividing the land. with respect to the condo application, we're creating two legal that contain the airspace in those two separate units. I'm pretty comfortable with that, looks right to me. |
| 00:27:19.89 | Kristina Feller | Right. |
| 00:27:20.28 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay. |
| 00:27:21.39 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 00:27:21.41 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you. That's helpful. Thank you. |
| 00:27:24.58 | Kristina Feller | Vice Chair Graff, Do you have any questions for staff at this time? |
| 00:27:29.43 | Richard Graef | Um, Well, I'm... Yeah, a couple. really not very conversant with uh, the condominium world. And so, uh, Forgive me for not understanding some of these things. Ahem. the And it has partly to do with responsibilities outside their parcels. and I think it's a kind of brought up in some of the communications Uh, Do do. potential condominium condominium owners have any responsibility to any of the adjacent properties that share the road and the environment there. such as the road and the retaining wall, war It does. Do their responsibilities Uh, Are they confined only to the boundaries of their particular piece of property, their parcels. So now I'm a little unclear as to how where We have the responsibility of a member condominium. owner uh, Where does it stop? I'm not sure. And then the CCNRs, I'm assuming those that talk about a lot of communal, not communal, but shared space. and so on, but again, I'm assuming that is only in reference to that particular property. Those are the only things that I I kind of wanted to get cleared up in my mind. |
| 00:29:22.13 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Larissa, do you want to address any of those or can you? |
| 00:29:28.28 | Larissa Alton | I can start maybe Lily or Mary, if she's on, want to add on. But the CCNRs would only cover the property at that point. the parcel. Not any adjacent easements. to that parcel. |
| 00:29:50.35 | Larissa Alton | Thank you. |
| 00:29:50.50 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 00:29:50.55 | Larissa Alton | Thank you. |
| 00:29:50.72 | Larissa Alton | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 00:29:51.06 | Kristina Feller | Okay. |
| 00:29:51.35 | Larissa Alton | Thank you. |
| 00:29:52.66 | Kristina Feller | Director Whelan, do you want to add anything to that? |
| 00:29:56.15 | Director Whelan | No, just to support what Larissa said, the responsibility of the property owners would end at the parcel line. So my understanding is that a part of the roadway is on the portion of this parcel. And so they would have responsibility for that portion. It does. the roadway. And my understanding also is from Larissa is that the maintenance. is addressed in the ccnr's for the common area and the roadway easement is included in the CCNRs. |
| 00:30:35.51 | Richard Graef | Got it. |
| 00:30:38.49 | Jeffery Luxenberg | If I could through the chair, isn't the entire roadway in the parcel? I don't even think it's half of the road. I think it's all over. |
| 00:30:48.70 | Kristina Feller | No. |
| 00:30:49.23 | Jeffery Luxenberg | It's true, it's true, it's true. all over the road in front of their property. In other words, the people beyond them can't get have no road other than the easement that is part of this land, I think, because it's a private road. Am I misunderstanding it? |
| 00:31:08.01 | Director Whelan | It is a private road. |
| 00:31:11.21 | Jeffery Luxenberg | And so all of the land i mean i i have the same question the vice chair graph has is they have this road that goes through their property which other people have an easement for so at some point who's responsible for, I mean, the other people have no way to get to their homes without going through this parcel, but those other people have an easement for that. |
| 00:31:28.56 | Kevin McGowan | and other people have no way |
| 00:31:35.99 | Jeffery Luxenberg | The responsibilities for this are not so clear to me, unlike a public road where public works will be responsible. |
| 00:31:44.53 | Director Whelan | Good. Chair Feller, we might want the applicant to address some of these questions and how the responsibility is shared right now and it will be in the future. |
| 00:31:53.86 | Kristina Feller | absolutely um thank you Director Whalen and and thank you commissioners for for the questions I think that this is a major issue that we've all separately sort of picked up on in our own way And in terms of my questions for staff, this would be one of them as well. Um, that I'm hoping the applicant can help to address I want to be careful that we're not getting into a deliberation here yet We do want to hear from the applicant and we do want to hear from the public about about this item But I do have a question, Larissa, real quick before we move to the applicant. I'm not sure. at any time in your involvement with this application, Was there any discussion or consideration for combining the parcels into one parcel? or just keeping them as all three? separate. Thank you. |
| 00:32:46.76 | Larissa Alton | I only heard conversation of this particular tentative map, no other possibilities were ever mentioned while I've been working on it. |
| 00:32:57.19 | Kristina Feller | Okay. And in terms of the issue regarding who did the notice go to, I know Director Whelan mentioned this. I do want to know who this notice went to. And I do wanna understand the radius of if all of those addresses and individuals are properties or homeowners or renters. if they did receive it or not, or was there any mail that got returned to the city. So I'd like to understand that as well. And if I'm, not mistaken I believe our director of public works is also with us this evening if I could ask our Director of Public Works, a quick question. or in director Whale and you as well, the retaining wall Um, the issue of the retaining law, was that reviewed by public works or was that approved through through planning ministerially or how did that What was that process? |
| 00:33:57.42 | Director Whelan | While we're getting Kevin up here, Larissa, do you know the process for the retaining wall was it an administrative design review permit? |
| 00:34:06.26 | Larissa Alton | I only was able to unearth a building permit in conjunction with the retaining wall? which was from 2018. I don't know if it's going to be went through planning approval or not. It probably would have, but I haven't been able to find that. Thank you. |
| 00:34:26.32 | Director Whelan | Right. Chair Feller, if it met a trigger, then it would have required administrative design review. If it was below a certain height, then it could just move on to a building permit. |
| 00:34:36.28 | Kristina Feller | Yeah, I'm thinking at least I'm looking at it thinking about it in terms of the the structural loads on it. would probably bump it up to something more significant. but I don't know that, that's why I'm asking, and then then maybe Larissa in what you uncovered I just want to understand Was there any special permissions that needed to be sought from the property owners at 195 to 197 for the retaining wall, or was it a, repair of a retaining wall or is it just within that easement and therefore others have the right to to repair it. as needed. |
| 00:35:24.51 | Larissa Alton | Well, the building permit was filed for that address with that APN for 195 High Vista. |
| 00:35:31.19 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 00:35:32.86 | Larissa Alton | AND I THINK I'M GOING TO applicant. I think that's a good question. looks like an architect, so I don't know. who exactly submitted the application. And it is for $150. eight-foot soldier beam retaining wall. the uphill slope of the portion of High Vista Road. |
| 00:35:51.10 | Unknown | . |
| 00:35:55.09 | Larissa Alton | It had not been final. when the condo conversion was going through review and The applicants had to contact the building inspector and also the public works director. to get some more information on how to get that filed out before this approval could come to you to the planning commission |
| 00:36:20.32 | Kristina Feller | So if I understand that the applicants that were for this hearing tonight had to get that retaining wall finaled to be able to move forward with this condo conversion did i I understand that. |
| 00:36:37.70 | Larissa Alton | The work had been done. It was completed. It just hadn't been. final doubt. Thank you. |
| 00:36:42.91 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 00:36:42.93 | Larissa Alton | Okay. |
| 00:36:42.98 | Kristina Feller | Okay. |
| 00:36:43.26 | Larissa Alton | uh, with the city. |
| 00:36:45.51 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Um, All right, I don't need to go over some of the other issues that my fellow commissioners raised because I have the same ones. If no one else has any questions specifically for staff at this time, let's go ahead and ask the applicant to give their presentation and While while staff is helping the applicant come forward and get there are video on and share screen on I will just say that the applicant team, the total team has 15 minutes to give their presentation. And at any time, if if this commission has questions for you that will not count against your time. So any Q&A and your time to respond to us does not count against that 15 minutes. And I believe that our Zoom team led by Maria will have a comment timer up here on screen as well so you can keep tabs on your time as well. So who is presenting for the applicant this evening? |
| 00:38:01.60 | Warren Forster | Hello, this is Warren Forster. I'm one of the owners at 195197 High Vista. and I'll start out by presenting. |
| 00:38:11.37 | Kristina Feller | Great. Welcome this evening. Thank you for being here. |
| 00:38:14.71 | Warren Forster | Hi, Tyler. Thanks for having me. |
| 00:38:18.78 | Kristina Feller | Okay, the floor is yours. |
| 00:38:20.43 | Warren Forster | Okay, thank you. So my name is Warren Forster. Like I said, I'm one of the owners at 195-197 High Vista. I live on the 195 side. I live here with my wife, Vanessa, and my two week old son, William. The other owners are Leithian Shehzad who lived next door to me. They also have two beautiful daughters who I see in the screen with them. So hi guys. Alipia and Shehzad were friends of mine for years actually before we owned this property together. The funny story is how we ended up here tonight is that About six years ago, Shehzad sent me a text message and said, A, if my landlord puts our duplex on the market, would you be interested in buying the other half with me? |
| 00:39:12.37 | Unknown | So. |
| 00:39:13.30 | Warren Forster | Long story short, that's how we ended up here. It's kind of one of those crazy Bay Area purchasing stories that sound probably ludicrous to anybody who lives in the middle of the country, but Uh, pretty far for the course, I guess, here in Sausalito. other places in the bank. Um, So, Obviously buying is a rather challenging thing. and We're here tonight because we're asking that you allow us to complete our condo conversion. We think that we've met the criteria to get there. This is a really important milestone for both myself and Alethean Jazad Um, and will allow us to finance either portion of our homes with the type of a loan that best suits our families and allows us to continue to afford to live here in this very beautiful and very expensive city. And it also gives us flexibility down the road. So, Thank you for your time again, and I'll turn it over to Alethe and Shehzad to introduce themselves. |
| 00:40:41.76 | Alethea Shehzad | Hello, everyone. First, I want to thank you all for your time today. As Warren mentioned, my name is Alethea, and this is my husband, Shahzad, and my daughter is Zahra. We live in the 197 High Vista unit with our two daughters. We've been living in Sausalito for the past seven years. We rented the property. from the previous owners for two years before finally purchasing it with Warren in 2016. first time homebuyers. It's been an exciting journey getting here today. And we just wanna thank Larissa and Lily and the entire planning staff for all your help and support. And with that, I'm gonna hand it over to the next speaker. |
| 00:41:28.52 | Warren Forster | Um... Christina, that was our presentation. I think we'd like to reserve any remaining time for rebuttal if needed, and of course, There were several questions that came up earlier and we'd like to address all of them as best we can. Um, I've been. I've written some down, but I'm not quite sure how, apologies, I'm not quite sure how this works, but I'm prepared to to answer as best any questions you might have for us. |
| 00:41:59.13 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. |
| 00:42:03.97 | Kristina Feller | Great, well, thank you both for your presentations this evening. I see we have 11 minutes and 30 32 seconds on the clock so so that clock has been stopped so let's park that on the side for just a minute I'm not sure. so there are a number of questions that that we do have you've heard some of them from the Commission. I'm just going to highlight some of them and then I'm going to allow the commissioners to dive into further detail about this and I think you know the first question that most of us had is regarding the Beatles and the structure because that report was from 2018 could you please tell us if there's been any mitigative measures or a newer a recent report pest report done. |
| 00:42:55.16 | Warren Forster | Yeah, so Christina, the press report does highlight that there was evidence that there was beetles at one time. And so you can still see some of those holes that the beetles created. It didn't appear that I think to the experts that it created any structural issue. The house had been fumigated prior to our ownership. And so we didn't believe that there was any repairs specific to I'm the, evidence of Beatles necessary. Um, of course, um, you know, the findings are such that we need to have an additional pest report done More recently, of course, we can ask that to be done. |
| 00:43:45.82 | Kristina Feller | Okay. And again, I'm just going to go over these in high, high levels so we can get some of this information out and then we'll get into some questions directly from the commissioners but in the CC&Rs, there was no budget for the maintenance of the roadway and the retaining wall. And we'd like to understand better how you're addressing that in the CCNRs? |
| 00:44:14.23 | Warren Forster | Sure, yeah, so in terms of the roadway, the way that the costs have been dealt with in the past and Quite honestly, since our ownership, there really hasn't been any maintenance of the asphalt portion of the road itself, just the new retaining wall that was built. |
| 00:44:24.98 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 00:44:25.13 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:44:25.24 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 00:44:33.42 | Warren Forster | But our understanding is that neighbors, you know, contributed out of their pocket to patch the asphalt road as necessary. I can speak for myself that I've purchased some bags of asphalt, just patched up the road when a pothole would develop. But we do not have a road maintenance agreement with our neighbors of the street as they've alluded to and that is true and it is you know we're happy to sign one. Um, perhaps we address this at a later time, I'm you know we've never seen a draft of one we've always been willing to sign something and you know we're prepared to do that assuming we can all kind of agree to the terms of that |
| 00:45:26.27 | Kristina Feller | Sure, appreciate your willingness to do that. I think that's important. Specifically the CCNRs, which is really 195, 197, there is a requirement in the CCNRs for maintenance budget and that would include the street and the retaining wall on your property. So that's really the focus of the question. I appreciate you. |
| 00:45:49.78 | Maria | I appreciate that. |
| 00:45:51.53 | Kristina Feller | willing to work with the neighbors that's but I'm really asking I think we all are about the CCNRs |
| 00:45:58.05 | Warren Forster | Yes, there is no budget included in the CCNRs. We'd probably treat anything that came up as a special assessment and just deal with the costs at those times. |
| 00:46:10.06 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Um, Was there any consideration or discussion about combining the three parcels into one parcel? |
| 00:46:22.85 | Warren Forster | Um, so I... I was scratching my head a bit when this came up. We certainly don't have any intent of personalizing our lot into three different pieces. I just think that's how the lot came together over the years and none of the surveyor that we worked with never kind of scratched his head or asked us if it was something that we wanted to do and honestly we never if you gave it any additional thought I thought it was normal. |
| 00:46:57.45 | Kristina Feller | Okay. um, I'm gonna go ahead and open this up to the rest of the commissioners. I just, those were sort of the high level common themes that I think you've probably heard. for me to question staff, but I know that there's more detail |
| 00:47:06.71 | Unknown | MEETING. |
| 00:47:11.69 | Kristina Feller | So I'd like to ask Commissioner Luxenberg, can you kick us off here and make sure that your questions have been addressed Sure. |
| 00:47:20.72 | Jeffery Luxenberg | sure. Thank you, Chair Feller. You've asked the question about the Beatles and also about this budget. The only comment I make to the applicants is THE The documentation requires you to get an error to get a final map, which is the last stage, you don't need a budget. It's a requirement. So I was hoping you would have thought that through, but you can't do it on a case by case basis. It's a requirement of the of the condominium documents. that have been provided by community development. |
| 00:47:56.73 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 00:48:00.10 | Jeffery Luxenberg | So there's that. um, And I did ask a question earlier about you submitted this in 2019. Were you delayed a bit because of the pandemic or why is it taking so long to get to this point from your perspective, I guess? |
| 00:48:18.50 | Warren Forster | Yeah, sure, Mr. Luxenberg. Yeah, just, we started this process in 2019, and of course, life got in the way, and certainly the pandemic didn't help either, so. Um, it's, I think it, you know, we've kind of traded hands with the city and, you know, things have just taken longer than expected. So it wasn't our intent to take this long, that. Yeah. |
| 00:48:45.23 | Shahzad Shehzad | Yeah, and just to add to that, I think for us it was a learning curve as well. Like we were doing this all for the first time and go through this documentation, work with all of the people that we had to work with. We were learning how to do this ourselves as first-time homebuyers. So I'm We would love to have done this faster. We were honestly trying to do this as fast as we possibly could. And in our head, we wanted to do this last year. It just has taken long. And honestly, we didn't want it to take long ourselves. we're just happy that it's finally at this point and we can hopefully get to a resolution as soon as we can. |
| 00:49:23.15 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay, those are my questions, Chair Fellow. Thank you. |
| 00:49:23.50 | Shahzad Shehzad | We will be back. |
| 00:49:26.10 | Kristina Feller | All right, thank you, Commissioner Luxenberg. Commissioner Saad, I know you had similar questions, but I want to allow you the opportunity ask your questions directly to the applicant |
| 00:49:37.41 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. You know, I was also just looking at the the structural, the wood destroying pests and organisms inspection report. And there's also, I know we all mentioned the beetles, but there was also an issue with moisture. And I was just, concerned around the recommendation, I think this is point two, moisture membrane between the concrete and the wood supporting members has failed. So from a safety perspective alone for yourselves and your family, but then also from a structural set up the recommendation was to rebuild the framing. And I was just wondering if that has been either taken into account or has the work been done yet? or plan to be. |
| 00:50:26.48 | Warren Forster | Oh, sure. Yeah. So, yeah, we're aware of the kind of moisture here. Um, word word, they, Um, carport meets the concrete retaining wall. We've talked to several contractors. kind of caveat in the condo conversion about pulling permits and not wanting to do things prior so we were just kind of you know waiting for directions but we have contractors where they get going. And I, I think it's, um, If I understand the process with Larissa correctly, this will be conditioned and of course, we'll get the work done. signed off and Um, that. be able to. complete the condo conversion. I might be not understanding that correctly, but that's |
| 00:51:18.23 | Nastassya Saad | Okay, no, I think I just want I couldn't quite understand just from the basic report if any of that work has been done and I know we were looking at the beetle portion, but there does seem to be that moisture so everything in that report has just been noted and and no action has been taken yet. |
| 00:51:33.64 | Warren Forster | Um, Correct. Yeah. |
| 00:51:35.75 | Nastassya Saad | OK. Um, Thank you. And... Yes, I was just going to note on the budget, but Commissioner Luxenberg said that as well. So I think Chair Feller, I'm okay for now. Thank you. |
| 00:51:47.51 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you, Commissioner Saad. Commissioner Junius. |
| 00:51:54.50 | Andrew Junius | Sure, quick question about the, it sounds like you don't have a roadway maintenance agreement with the other neighbors that share the access, but those neighbors obviously do have an easement I assume that that's a pretty old easement, goes back quite a ways. |
| 00:52:09.01 | Warren Forster | AND I WANT TO TAKE A LOOK AT It has to be original to Lot. So it's not a... an easement. I don't see any kind of easement by necessity, sorry. |
| 00:52:17.53 | Steven Woodside | kind of |
| 00:52:21.14 | Warren Forster | That's it. |
| 00:52:21.97 | Andrew Junius | but it's like if you had a test, but if you pulled your title report out, you'd probably see it recorded easement that burden your property that, okay, |
| 00:52:29.97 | Warren Forster | Yeah, you see it running across. |
| 00:52:32.03 | Andrew Junius | Yes. Yeah. go. That was my only question, thank you. |
| 00:52:36.65 | Richard Graef | Thank you. |
| 00:52:37.55 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Vice Chair Graham? |
| 00:52:41.24 | Richard Graef | No, I think my questions have been answered. Thank you. |
| 00:52:45.71 | Kristina Feller | Okay, great. believe mine have been as well with the exception of the retaining wall that was just finaled. Can you comment on your participation with that in terms of getting it final And I'm assuming that that's in the existing easement. So there was no additional permissions from you and Mr. Shahzad and his family. to actually perform that work. |
| 00:53:20.17 | Warren Forster | Um, That's right. So we weren't a part of the construction of that retaining wall. It This issue actually came up when we were in the process of the condo conversion. We learned that the retaining wall permit had never been finaled and closed. So we had reached out to the engineers who worked on that project and collected some necessary documents that I think the building department had asked for the department of public works that asked for. and sent that off to them. and just help facilitate getting it closed out so we could move forward, because it was causing delay in getting to this point with you guys. |
| 00:54:08.01 | Kristina Feller | So the geotechnical report is that it is, did you have to, engage a geotech to get that report done to get it finaled |
| 00:54:19.17 | Warren Forster | That's correct. Yeah. So the geotechnical engineer who worked on the retaining wall project was Herzog. geotechnical and yes I did I'm not sure. get in touch with, um, Mr. Herzog and paid him to generate a report for us. that the city had asked for or a letter rather that the project had been completed and have him come out and do his own inspection, if you will. |
| 00:54:50.08 | Kristina Feller | Okay. And then just, I need to go back to this issue regarding the budget as part of the CCNRs, not, I want to make the distinction. I'm not talking about the any agreement you have today or future agreement you may have with your neighbors on the maintenance of the road and the retaining wall. I want to about the maintenance budget as part of the agreement with the CCNR. So that's really what I wanna focus on because there is a budget that you do need to put together. And I wanna make sure that there is clear understanding of what that might require. Um... and you know, It is the only way in and the only way out for a number of people. So there's a significant public safety issue here that this commission is going to be concerned about. And, you know, what, I might think is know a fine clear road and what you might think or somebody else might think I mean there there there's a lot of gray area that can exist there and so I just want to I want to make sure that there's recognition of the criticality of the maintenance of that road and that retaining wall on that easement in your CCNRs. So have you Do you have a preliminary budget? Have you discussed this? Where are you in this process? |
| 00:56:17.82 | Warren Forster | I'm, Honestly, Christina, I think we do have A budget and I'm sorry I'm just kind of jogging my memory. You know we did start this process and 20, um, And I think this is one of the first issues that we tackled and we've just been kind of chipping away at so many other things that it's just not fresh in my mind. Um, But It is something that we considered and if there's not, I don't know if we specifically tackled the issue of the road itself, but we can certainly allocate, you know, budget for its maintenance. It is part of this CCNR and acknowledge it. |
| 00:57:03.06 | Shahzad Shehzad | Just a second what Warren said. I remember having the conversation about budgets, putting some numbers together. |
| 00:57:03.11 | Warren Forster | Okay. |
| 00:57:09.72 | Shahzad Shehzad | But yeah, absolutely, if we need to put some money aside for that, |
| 00:57:09.79 | Warren Forster | But, |
| 00:57:10.04 | Lucinda Eubanks | Thank you. |
| 00:57:14.38 | Shahzad Shehzad | and put a budget towards it, absolutely no problem doing that. |
| 00:57:18.18 | Warren Forster | I appreciate that. |
| 00:57:18.70 | Shahzad Shehzad | Yeah. |
| 00:57:19.26 | Warren Forster | I think we equally want to acknowledge the importance of maintaining safe road. |
| 00:57:26.43 | Kristina Feller | All right, I appreciate that from both of you. Thank you for that. Commissioner, did you have any questions? |
| 00:57:35.29 | Morgan Pierce | Can I cancel quick? Hold on. |
| 00:57:37.35 | Kristina Feller | Hold on, I think Commissioner Saad had a |
| 00:57:38.28 | Morgan Pierce | Hold on, Commissioner. |
| 00:57:42.24 | Kristina Feller | I'm still in. |
| 00:57:42.56 | Nastassya Saad | I'm still used to school Commissioner Luxembourg. I still raise my hand so she sees me. |
| 00:57:42.93 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 00:57:46.41 | Unknown | Thank you. it. |
| 00:57:48.03 | Nastassya Saad | Um, I just had a question. You had just said something around having your own report. And I'm just wondering if we're missing that in our packet because the only Hertzog Geotech report I'm seeing was not addressed to you. It's addressed to Rob and Maggie Cox. And if you do have something that you've worked on yourself I think it'd really be prudent for us to see it because |
| 00:58:14.52 | Warren Forster | So I'm sorry, was that your question? |
| 00:58:19.26 | Nastassya Saad | Yeah, I was just wondering if you do have a one to one communication or your own report, it might be beneficial here because I don't see that in our packet. |
| 00:58:27.74 | Warren Forster | So let me correct this. So this is specifically to the retaining wall project, not the condominium conversion, but the retaining wall project itself, when we had discovered that it wasn't closed out. One of the documents that I believe, Kenneth, the building inspector had asked for was a letter from Herzog uh, Affirming that the project was completed per the plans and specs and his inspection of that. So, That is the letter that I had Herzog generate. Of course, I believe Maggie or Rob were the applicants, |
| 00:59:16.71 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 00:59:16.78 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 00:59:16.91 | Unknown | of the world. |
| 00:59:16.98 | Kevin McGowan | Right. |
| 00:59:19.42 | Warren Forster | address the letter to them, though I did not request that the letter Um, be made so There's only one letter, sorry. |
| 00:59:30.26 | Nastassya Saad | Okay. So the letter, okay. So the letter that we did receive an R in this packet is the letter you are referring to. |
| 00:59:37.77 | Warren Forster | Yes, and I can pull up the data if that helps clarify. |
| 00:59:38.48 | Nastassya Saad | Okay. I have it in front of me. I was just making sure we weren't missing some piece of information. No. |
| 00:59:47.98 | Warren Forster | Thank you. |
| 00:59:50.51 | Kristina Feller | Thank you for questioning that. Commissioner Luxenberg, |
| 00:59:55.00 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Yes, thank you, Chair Ferlar. With regard to this, the budget sort of jogging my mind, have you established HOA fees that you're both going to pay to fund the man. I mean, that sort of goes with, |
| 01:00:07.53 | Kevin McGowan | I mean, that's |
| 01:00:09.26 | Jeffery Luxenberg | It's different from the budget, but there's going to be monthly, yearly, whatever fees. as being part of this too. her condominium Have you established that yet? Thank you. |
| 01:00:22.03 | Warren Forster | um, |
| 01:00:23.06 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you. |
| 01:00:23.08 | Warren Forster | Sure, yes, Mr. Wexenberg. Yeah, I believe we do have a preliminary budget. and Again, I apologies. this is maybe one of the items that we had generated so long ago, you know, back in 2019, So we're happy to dust that off and make sure we get a copy of it and if it's not sufficient, we can spruce it up. |
| 01:00:51.02 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 01:00:51.53 | Warren Forster | Thank you. |
| 01:00:52.14 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Any other questions at this time, commissioners, for the applicants here? Okay. I'm not sure. If not, I'm going to open this up for public comment at this time. And then we'll, we'll keep record of the 11 minutes and 32 seconds that you can use. because we still need to deliberate and do a number of other things. Um, At this time, if we can open this up for public comment, And to do so, you can raise your hand in the Zoom application. or if you are attending by cellular phone, you can hit star nine. So I will start looking for raised hands. |
| 01:01:42.79 | Kristina Feller | Yes I see Rob Cox has a raised hand if Zoom team we could unmute Mr. Cox and share his video |
| 01:02:02.37 | Kristina Feller | Yes, Mr. Cox, good evening, welcome. You have three minutes for public comment. |
| 01:02:08.83 | Rob Cox | Thank you, Chair Feller, and thank you, Commissioners, for hearing me. I'm Rob Cox. I'm at 110 I-Vista Road, just up the road from um, Warren Shazodan families and have a few points to make in addition to the or to supplement those that are in the letter that you received from me and my wife Maggie as well as Danny and Mary Huntalis. The Huntalises I don't think are with us tonight. They are They are the senior members of Hivista Road. residents and owners in High Vista Road for 49 years and owns seven properties up here. but they send their regards and thanks for your consideration. I'm not sure. I'd like to highlight a number of points made in the letter. And first, this project concerns more than splitting a duplex into two condo units for two wonderful families. It's also about this road, which you commissioners and the staff have already talked a lot about. And it's about the hillside below High Vista Road. on applicants parcel. And as you've noted, High Vista Road is a private road at the very southern end of Sausalito, and it is the only access, absolutely the only access for 16 homes up here. It's the only way for emergency vehicles to get to us it's the only way for first responders to get here. And a number of these homes are immediately adjacent to the GGNRA. and the increasing risk of wildfires on the federal land, which is not maintained by our federal government, has us even more concerned about our access to emergency first responders. So the road is very important to us, certainly, who live along here. From the intersection of High Vista Road with Marion Avenue, Um, there's a roadway easement across the applicant's parcel. and the city staff's report to you today really doesn't talk about these the special circumstances of High Vista Road. And I would really, commend to the Commissioner's consideration of the road issues because it does involve, as the commissioners have said, issues of public safety and public nuisances, which are things that the condominium ordinance, as I understand it, is bound to take up and consider. Second, I wanted to make a point about the parcel also includes and impacts the unimproved Heelside below High Vista Road. near the intersection with Mary. |
| 01:05:25.49 | Kristina Feller | I apologize for my interrupting you, but your three minutes has elapsed. And I know there are others in the public also waiting to provide a public comment so if you can just maybe finish that that point and then we'll move to the next commenter Can we unmute Mr. Cox just to finish his one point? Thank you. |
| 01:05:49.29 | Rob Cox | May I? My wife is also planning to comment. and we do our time together. |
| 01:05:57.13 | Kristina Feller | You may do your time together, yes. Okay. hand it over to your wife if you'd like. |
| 01:06:04.00 | Rob Cox | or if she will come. And we wanted to share a screen with respect to this hillside. Am I allowed to? |
| 01:06:05.30 | Kristina Feller | And, |
| 01:06:11.66 | Kristina Feller | Yeah, I do see, is it Maggie Cox is your wife, I'm assuming. |
| 01:06:11.82 | Rob Cox | Yeah. |
| 01:06:16.42 | Kristina Feller | Correct. |
| 01:06:16.74 | Rob Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:06:17.00 | Kristina Feller | She has raised her hand. I'm not sure. And then I also see Lucinda Eubanks has raised her hand prior to that. Um, if I could ask the Cox if we can add three minutes to the clock in between yourself and your wife Mr. Cox if you could take the next three minutes and then we'll move on to the next speakers. |
| 01:06:37.30 | Unknown | So, right. |
| 01:06:37.31 | Kristina Feller | So ready? Thank you. Zoom team let's put that back to three minutes. Good. |
| 01:06:42.39 | Rob Cox | Good. And may I share screen? |
| 01:06:45.28 | Kristina Feller | you yes we will give you permissions to share screen we're just fixing the clock and then we will give you permissions to share your screen And don't be surprised if we shut you off at three minutes. There we go. We've got the clock right. Do we have share screen capability for Mr. Cox, Mr. and Mrs. Cox here? Thank you. Zoom team. |
| 01:07:09.66 | Kristina Feller | Okay, you are now a co-host, so you can share your screen and we'll start the clock when you do so. |
| 01:07:16.60 | Rob Cox | So can you see that? |
| 01:07:19.67 | Kristina Feller | Yes. |
| 01:07:19.97 | Maria | Thank you. |
| 01:07:20.12 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 01:07:20.36 | Rob Cox | Okay, so this is the hillside, a picture taken today, as a matter of fact, from Edwards Avenue, up. the hillside toward high vista road and the structure you see to the left is 195 the vista road So, this is the the parcel i think referred to in the tentative map as parcel one. And, uh, PRZOD has looked at both in 1996 when there was a significant landslide recommended to Fausselino to do something about this so this stability Uh, for this hillside impacts Hivista Road and that access. The CCNR section 4.1A says the association will maintain the area in its natural state except for landscaping improvements for erosion control and soil stability. Does that mean the association will take the geotech's recommendations into account for those improvements in this area. Third, I wanted to talk just briefly about the retaining wall. And if I can share screen. or the |
| 01:08:52.90 | Kristina Feller | So, |
| 01:08:53.17 | Rob Cox | Thank you. And you see that. |
| 01:08:55.32 | Director Whelan | Yes. |
| 01:08:56.65 | Rob Cox | That is the retaining law, 195 is there. It was funded without any participation by the applicants. And I can give you the details and all the Herzog stuff if we have more time. And the final point I'll make is I'm very glad here. that the applicants will do a maintenance agreement. It has been drafted. It can be completed very quickly. So in summary, we would recommend the planning commission delay approval of this until |
| 01:09:26.11 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:09:26.20 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:09:26.28 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:09:32.38 | Rob Cox | We receive evidence that a road maintenance agreement is in place. Thank you. |
| 01:09:39.07 | Maggie Cox | Hi, there's just a little bit of time left. I'm Maggie Cox. I'd like to add to this. I'm not sure. countless amount of work on trying to stabilize this road, both by the city requesting the Herzog report, 25 years ago, many discussions with city planners, attendance at meetings, urging the city to do their part about this so i'm glad it's being discussed at this meeting As owners of property, we have tried to do things, the retaining wall, I urge all of us to wait to approve this until everyone has a chance to really consider what's going on on this hillside I'm very glad to hear several of you visited the site and have an idea of what's entailed up here. So thank you for your time. |
| 01:10:33.87 | Kristina Feller | Thank you very much Mr. and Mrs. Cox. Thank you very much. The next hand I see is Lucinda Eubanks. Welcome this evening. Zoom team if we can unmute Miss Eubanks and you have three minutes for for public comment the floor is yours |
| 01:10:52.94 | Lucinda Eubanks | Hi, good evening. Thank you for being here and discussing this. Warren, congratulations on your new baby. And I can just imagine all the work that you have put in to get to this point today. I know it's very frustrating. I would just like you to consider all the time and energy that the Cox's have put into this Um, Danny and Mary Hantalus. and us I know it's no fun but we really need to be together as a team to to pay our share. I really believe that you know, you owe money to the owners that paid for this farley does Um, Bye. I would approve this if they did pay their share and they did sign into a road maintenance agreement with the neighbors. Farley, zip it. Again, I know that this has been a long haul for you guys and it's something that you've wanted to do since the very beginning. but you knew about the road. you knew about the wall and I would really like to become good neighbors with you. and work together on maintaining this private road. And I'd like to give my time to Steven Woodside, who's my partner in this property. And thank you again for doing this for Sausalito at 744 in the evening on Wednesday thank you |
| 01:12:46.52 | Kristina Feller | Thank you, Lucinda. Thank you very much. Steven Woodside, I see your hands up. So, we can stop the clock and give Mr. Woodside just four minutes, take the rest of Lucinda's, time and then his three minutes as well. Welcome this evening. We can unmute you. and the floor is... |
| 01:13:10.91 | Steven Woodside | Okay. Thank you very much for taking your time to keep Sausalito beautiful and safe. Um, I want to respond to a couple of questions that were asked earlier by commissioners. First of all, Commissioner Junius asked about a budget there is no budget here and the reason is The applicants have not paid for the portion of the wall that was constructed a long time ago. We offered and I personally wrote to them in 2018 We allocated the cost per unit, $5,000 per unit. to complete the wall basically shores up the uphill side above their property and protects the road from further erosion. It's really in bad shape. And we did what the best we could as owners to make sure the wall was constructed. So I'm skeptical as to whether a budget here has any meaning if the applicants continue to refuse pay their fair share. And on the point Commissioner Graf made, about obligations of those who have shared interest in an easement. The Civil Code of California is very clear. 845. Wow. I'll be. owners of an easement, whether they own the underlying dirt or not. are to share in the cost of maintaining that road. And clearly the wall that you saw that, Uh, Rob Cox put up on the screen. really does protect. It's obvious. It protects the road from further erosion. And down below, we've got a big problem. that we're gonna have to solve. And unless we come to an agreement that we're going to share equally in the cost, We're not gonna get anywhere. So I would strongly recommend as did Mr. Cox that you not approve this now. until we have a meaningful agreement with a meaningful budget that proportionately shares costs. We're not unreasonable, we believe in the The poem Robert Frost wrote many years ago, mending wall, good fences make good neighbors. In our case, good walls make good neighbors. we really want to get along and and work this thing out for everyone's benefit So thank you for your time. tonight and we hope you don't approve it now but turn it back over to all of us to try to sort this out. I agree. |
| 01:15:43.20 | Kristina Feller | Thank you, Stephen. Thank you very much. Um, let's see, I do not see any more raised hands at this time. Just give everybody a moment if there's any other Anybody else who'd like to comment? Seeing none, I'm going to close public comment at this time. And I will, allow the applicant if you'd like to use any of your remaining time to make any final comments before we start deliberation |
| 01:16:18.13 | Warren Forster | Yes, thank you. Here, let me turn my video back. |
| 01:16:26.02 | Kristina Feller | Okay, do we have the Zoom team, can we put the comment Fuck. back up at 1132 well done thank you Okay. Over to you, the floor is yours. |
| 01:16:37.46 | Warren Forster | Great, thank you so much. Sorry, my video doesn't seem to want to come back on, but I'll continue without. Uh, I appreciate all my neighbors comments and I, |
| 01:16:50.80 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:16:51.02 | Warren Forster | Thank you. |
| 01:16:51.07 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:16:51.11 | Warren Forster | I agree with that we want to get along with all of them. You know, the road safety is very important to us. Um, we want to do our best to make strides to come to a mutually agreed upon language for that road maintenance agreement You know, that said, we've been here for five years. We haven't seen a draft of that come through yet. I'd really hate to see that our project is delayed further because we haven't, seen a draft of that yet. What's more is I've been in contact with some of the other neighbors who aren't on this call tonight. They've expressed some concerns and reluctance to sign a road maintenance agreement. and if we're waiting for everybody to agree to this language we might be waiting a very long time so i just wanted to acknowledge that Additionally, I would like to point out that the picture that Rob Mr. Cox put on the screen is actually a city property that's not our parcel or our lot that's below our property. that's a good question. we can Yeah, that's the point. Yeah, we'd love resolution there, you know, the city to assist with that. But again, I don't know that that's pertinent to this conversation. Um, and that's all for me and I really thank everyone so much for their time I know you guys have a busy agenda we're just item 5a of several more things so we'd like to give you back as much time as possible I will allow OVP and Shahzad if they had anything else they wanted to say to jump in. |
| 01:18:55.10 | Shahzad Shehzad | Yeah, just to add to what Warren is saying. in the same thing that Warren is saying. If we were happy to get to an agreement, but there are many more property owners as part of this conversation. If it was just a matter of us and the other people who are in part of this conversation I can see that going through smoothly and fine. But there are other people who may or may not sign and may not be agreed to that. And we know of others who are who have voiced concerns in the past. And so, How can we be held up? for a counter conversion other people who can hold up, this this board made this agreement it seems a little unfair for us to be part of that. However, I do want to say it, like we are happy to do our part to make sure that the road is safe. because we have to be on it as well. Like if that road is blocked, it's our health and safety as well. we are happy to be involved in any capacity and do what it takes to get you know, Right. |
| 01:19:54.83 | Alethea Shehzad | Right, but we can't control other people. And so it just seems a little unfair to hold this up. for an agreement that we don't know is ever going to be made because there are other parties involved who are not on this call right now. |
| 01:20:09.79 | Shahzad Shehzad | And I can assure, I mean, I can assume that this is not the first time in the history of source leader that this conversation of a road maintenance agreement on the sword has come up. Like we're, we've only owned the house for four, for five years now, and it's been a problem for Since 65. Since 65. Like it's not good. |
| 01:20:26.13 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:20:29.17 | Shahzad Shehzad | We could be waiting for another 20 years for this to go through. You know, it feels unfair. It feels like we're being blackmailed into getting this done just because we are in this position to get approval. And it seems like we're being bullied into doing something that we shouldn't be having to be bullied to do. It just feels unfair. And we're like the smallest people on this whole road with millionaires living up on the street. And we're like literally the smallest two-bedroom house on this street. It's crazy. It's absolutely insane. |
| 01:21:02.33 | Shahzad Shehzad | to the end of the year. That's all I have to say. |
| 01:21:05.24 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Um, So you have additional time. Did you want to use that time or you've |
| 01:21:13.73 | Shahzad Shehzad | I did want to clarify one thing. I didn't want to clarify one more thing in war and let me about the history of the easement Okay, so I'll let that go then. |
| 01:21:30.14 | Kristina Feller | Okay. We'll give back our time. |
| 01:21:31.94 | Shahzad Shehzad | Yeah. |
| 01:21:32.89 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Well, definitely appreciate it very much. And thank you. I think at this time, I'm going to, pull this back up to our virtual dais here and I would say Warren and Shahzad and uh don't go too far um we might have a couple additional questions um So let's pull it back up here to the virtual dais for discussion and deliberations. Would anyone like to start us off here tonight? |
| 01:22:07.94 | Kristina Feller | I can go ahead if everyone's putting up their hand. Um, So I think that there are a couple different issues here. With this application and what this applicant is looking for, for this condo conversion, this commission doesn't really have the jurisdiction to require or demand a road maintenance agreement with the entire High Vista Road. that is outside of our purview and remit, unfortunately. I'm delighted to hear that 195 and 197 high vista are very interested in open to entering into that. and hopefully they can settle with their neighbors separate from this hearing any of the money's owed, we don't get involved, in that. that's between neighbors at this time. However, I'm very, very uncomfortable with not really understanding or seeing the maintenance budget for the the road and retaining wall on this property. that runs through this property. because it is so narrow and it is the only means of ingress and egress for all the residents that live in High Vista, I think that is something that is within our purview to grapple with and understand. So, I would be very interested and willing to see that I also would like to get my fellow commissioner's thoughts about conditioning the this with a geotech report independently done by the applicant for any sort of erosion control in this area, which includes issues related to the structure that we've um I think Commissioner Saad you've identified and Commissioner Luxenberg you've identified as well So those are my major, major issues with, with this, that, that I think we need to discuss a little bit further as a commission here. Anyone else's thoughts on that? Or any other thought? |
| 01:24:20.78 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Sure. Uh, I think I can code with you that our jurisdiction is limited to certain items. I don't have any issue with this becoming a condominium. I think it meets the ordinance as far as the number of units, that kind of thing. I think that if they eventually get an agreement for this road with their neighbors, it could be an agreement with the condominium and they would pay into the condominium and the condominium would pay the cost. So I concur with what you said, that the budget is important. I'm not sure that I need to see it back here as much as community development, maybe public works need to see that, but that definitely needs to happen. So we know that that's being maintained. And then I'm also a little concerned about the structure as well. So, but I, I don't want to hold these folks up. It seems to have taken two years to get to this point. And I don't know I don't know where we go from here, whether this is tonight or whether we need some more information to get there, but from a concept, I don't have any problem with this property being condominiumized as long as these issues are addressed. |
| 01:25:30.39 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:25:30.50 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 01:25:30.65 | Kevin McGowan | I'm sorry. |
| 01:25:39.33 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Yes, Commissioner Junius. |
| 01:25:42.76 | Andrew Junius | I certainly agree. I think the staff's report is pretty complete. I think the staff was really clear and what we can all kind of agree on, which is Road maintenance easement is well beyond the jurisdiction of this commission. We certainly hope you can all work it out. problem. The fact that it hasn't been worked out for decades, long before these folks showed up, I think is an indication of how difficult some of those things can be. reason to, um, hold these folks up for that. I'm not sure. you know, virtually, and the budget issue, I think is kind of fascinating you know, the world of condo budgets you know, usually don't include roadway easements. So I think I think what we're gonna find if we either condition some budget report to the staff or something following this evening's meeting. I think we're going to find that the the common area requirements for this condominium are likely to be well outside the scope of a roadway So, I mean, I do think there's some complexity here And it's unfortunate that the applicants, you know, maybe would have brought their condominium attorney with them to explain some of these nuanced details. But I think that the bottom line here is that a typical In my experience, a typical small condominium budget for something like this is extremely small. It doesn't really account for significant expenditures. And I think as Mr. Forrester, mentioned, you know, when something happens, when the roof leaks, you do a special assessment and you throw in the money then. You don't bank money for significant repairs on very small condominium projects like this. So I think there's no question that these folks have been waiting a long time. I don't see any reason why we wouldn't proceed tonight. I guess I'm fine if people are concerned about the geotech report, that probably is a good idea to add that as a condition. but I would like to see this move forward tonight. |
| 01:27:36.12 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 01:27:38.11 | Nastassya Saad | Mr. Saad? May I ask a question of Commissioner Junius, because you seem to have a background that I don't, and I'm just curious, you just mentioned it, that it's a small budget. Do you know in your experience then, what's a typical budget for? Maybe condominiums of the size? |
| 01:27:56.76 | Andrew Junius | That's a great question. likely a couple hundred dollars a month. And it's really, frankly, one thing I think everybody needs to realize here is that the condominium documents, that will be processed and finalized here are processed by the state. They do need to be signed off on by the local people, but they need to conform with state guidelines. and then the state guidelines do require a budget. But as the condominium associations get smaller, the budgets get smaller because it's impossible to require two families to, bank tens of thousands of dollars in the expectation that someday they'll need to repair their foundation or repair their roof. It just doesn't work that way. There is a budget requirement. I'm pretty confident at the state level it's very small. it's basically to account for a lot of paperwork. I mean, even a condominium of this size has to have you know, articles and bylaws and do annual reports all that kind of stuff and oftentimes that's actually offloaded to a provider and part of the budget goes to pay a special HOA consultant handle a paper request. So the budget here is likely to be very small when it's talking about just the condominium. And I really do think the issues about the maintenance of the roadway are, likely to be separate and outside the condominium budget itself and and and unfortunately stuck in this long-standing dispute between the, well, dispute's probably not the right word, you know, unresolved issue that, you know, we've been, they've been, you know, Decades have gone by with no with no maintenance agreement. That's pretty good. but I don't think the condominium budget is gonna solve that. |
| 01:29:30.25 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. That's really, that's insightful because, um, I mean, I think I agree with all my fellow commissioners here. I don't have any issue with the concept of the conversion either. I think I am definitely open to conditions. I think it would be great in the process of streamlining if we Don't want to put it back to the applicants to come up with a budget out of thin air without giving them a chance to discuss between themselves as well. Perhaps if we can, and I don't know legally if Mary is here, if we can condition the budget. So approval with the condition that they go back for a ministerial review of the budget or approval within 30 days. or something of that. |
| 01:30:15.44 | Kristina Feller | I think they have |
| 01:30:16.03 | Nastassya Saad | to produce it anyway. |
| 01:30:16.97 | Kristina Feller | to the next one. |
| 01:30:17.02 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. They do, but can't, I mean, Do they have to produce it? And it has to be written in tonight. for approval. No. So, okay. So it can be |
| 01:30:30.96 | Andrew Junius | Eventually when this package goes to the state for final signing off by the Department of Real Estate in Sacramento, there will be a final budget. |
| 01:30:31.06 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. |
| 01:30:38.02 | Nastassya Saad | got it okay I think I was misunderstanding that at the point of when the budget needed to be set then |
| 01:30:43.45 | Kristina Feller | I think part of the concern with the budget from this commission at least is that there's at least recognition that this road and private road and the retaining wall needs to be part of this budget and that it's a pretty significant part of the budget and and I I understand and respect what Commissioner Junius is saying and he's got wonderful experience in this arena but this isn't I don't have an issue with the condo conversion as it is but We are, you know this isn't on just some city street somewhere this is on a private road with a slope, you know, greater than 30 percent and is a member and contributor to the landslide task force this is a major issue here in Sausalito not to be underestimated particularly in that part of town. And so that is why, I mean, even if you're, you're condo fees, HOAs, whatever it is between the two units is a couple hundred bucks a month or something like that. there's also recognition of of the risk associated with this for this property. And I think that's really what we're trying to get at. And we're not here. necessarily to sign off on the budget. but we are here to ensure that that budget fully recognizes you know, the risks and constraints of this private road and the retaining walls associated with it. and any other issues with erosion. on these significant slopes. on an older foundation that has had some of its integrity impacted. |
| 01:32:34.94 | Kristina Feller | So that's, I think, That makes sense. |
| 01:32:40.07 | Andrew Junius | Um, What is this? Is it common for us to take an action and then for the staff to report back? because I really do think that that might be the solution here. I mean, I think we all would like to move this along, but also find out how this is going to get resolved down the road. because I think we might be you know, surprised when the budget comes back and And it's not, it's legally sufficient for California condominium requirements but because this is a private road easement, you know, may not have a lot to do with maintaining the private road. That's all I'm saying. |
| 01:33:14.33 | Kristina Feller | Sure. I mean, there are a couple options that we have. I mean, we can condition the approval. first of all. The second thing we can do is continue this hearing, not approve it tonight and continue it. to a date certain or a date uncertain. And that, of course, has to be in concert and discussion with, the applicant to see what their preference is as well. And if there's some type of compromise that we can meet here tonight to get this approved and they compromise on certain conditions and that can happen as well. Of course, we can always reject the entire thing, but I don't I'm not sensing that that's really where we all are. So that's where we are now. You know, this is just a slightly more complicated than just a condo conversion because of the site. and because and you know some of the unique circumstances to this it's on a private road that that the city does not maintain it which is a complicating factor. I'm going to shift around. |
| 01:34:19.11 | Andrew Junius | Thank you. Yeah. Question to the applicant real quick, just to be curious. Is Mr. Forster? |
| 01:34:26.42 | Kristina Feller | Mr. Forster, do you mind coming back up here? on screen for us. There we go. |
| 01:34:33.81 | Andrew Junius | Mr. Forster, who prepared your condo documents, if you don't mind me asking? Do you have an attorney or a consultant of some kind who's working on that? |
| 01:34:41.47 | Warren Forster | We did, yeah. We have an attorney that we had help us out prepare most of our documents. |
| 01:34:48.34 | Andrew Junius | If this matter were continued for a couple weeks to the very next meeting, would you be able to bring that attorney with you next time and answer a few of these questions and just clarify What a lot of the commissioners are concerned about, the difference between the condo budget and what the would be, you know, typically responsible for in this context. |
| 01:35:09.64 | Warren Forster | I think so, or if we had a list of questions that we took away from this, I can certainly come back prepared to answer them with this. Um, very expensive to have our attorney present and that. quite frankly, if we could answer them, you know, the questions in a letter, we'd love to do that. but you know, whatever is best. Our preference would be to just, you know, take away the questions and and have our attorney answer them efficiently. I appreciate that. Thank you. |
| 01:35:44.01 | Andrew Junius | Thank you. |
| 01:35:44.47 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Okay, Commissioner Graff. Vice Chair, we have not allowed you the chance to Offer your ideas and opinions. |
| 01:35:53.75 | Kevin McGowan | ideas and |
| 01:35:57.65 | Kristina Feller | You need to come off mute there. Vice Chair Graph. |
| 01:36:04.61 | Richard Graef | something happened a while ago and everything went away and came back. Okay. Well, I, along with my colleagues here, pretty much agree. that there isn't an issue per se with the condo conversion. And, you know, I'm okay with that. There doesn't seem to be any problem and it would be easy enough to make the findings. but there is the issue of the The, um... the area of responsibility that I'm not sure. how far I'm not sure. our authority goes in And, Uh... either making requirements or mitigating issues. I certainly think we've agree that uh, We want to see evidence in the CCNRs, which seems to be the only place that this can happen. that there's thought given to A budget? Um, It seems, and I think, That might be something we could condition. I'm a little hesitant to continue this, but we could. Um, My take on it is that that the the road as it comes off, you know, from down below the first whole section of the road is on the applicant's property. and That's the only way they can get to their property. Um, So it's certainly in their interest to do whatever they can to keep that road Say. for their own for their own purposes, if nothing else. I... I would certainly encourage them to work with the neighbors and try to come up with an agreement. but I think that's outside our Oh. overview here. So I would, I would, I would consider the conditional approval. Um, I'm not sure. such that the, the, um, remaining issue of the budget could be resolved and any other, I'm not quite sure what else needs to be resolved. Now, I think most of them have been hashed out. But yeah. |
| 01:38:50.36 | Kristina Feller | Right. Let me ask this then, Director Whalen, And could you come back up here to our, there we are. There you are. and possibly our city attorney Mary Wagner we may need you as well just a heads up. So director Whelan, there she is. Director Whalen, can we Can we condition this approval in the following way? Can we condition it? One. THE CITY IS GOING TO BE that, you know, to avoid continuing this, can we condition this in a manner. |
| 01:39:26.66 | Kevin McGowan | in a matter of time. |
| 01:39:28.11 | Kristina Feller | that the the applicants at 195 and 197 have need to maintain that the easement and the roadway and retaining wall in its current condition. Um, Can we do that? because that would you know, by default. require them to maintain it and it gives us a metric for which everyone can live by. And can we also condition it for an independent geotech report on any issues on the property related to slope erosion control or erosion and then mitigative measures for erosion control. |
| 01:40:08.95 | Maggie Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:40:16.96 | Director Whelan | So I'm going to see if our city attorney can address the first question there. |
| 01:40:25.01 | Mary Wagner | Sure. So as I understand, the project in front of you tonight is really just a change of ownership, right? You're going from attendance in common to a map that's going to create two separate parcels. And there's no construction proposed as part of this project. and the, roadway issue is really a broader one that goes much beyond this property. And I wanted to speak, if I could, Chair Feller, briefly to the condition we do have that I'm sure you're aware of, condition 7. Condition 7. in your packet which you know is really pretty standard but the idea there of this budget as as I believe Commissioner Juniots indicated and hopefully I pronounced her last name correctly. uh, is an agreement between the condo owners, right? How are they gonna maintain the common area? So, you know, you can envision things like landscaping and the types of things that would normally be in kind of a budget for that. In this case, I've asked staff if the roadway is actually included in part as part of the common area in which case it's included in the budget issue and maintenance of that would be would be included. And I think if you look at your condition, They're supposed to show estimated monthly costs for the owner of each unit projected over a five-year period. and that has to be prepared or reviewed by a professional management firm. It's a pretty standard condition with a condo conversion. So I believe you have that issue covered. With respect to maintaining the roadway in its current state, I mean, I think you indicated at the beginning of this, that's sort of beyond the maintenance of the roadway is beyond the scope of what's in front of the commission tonight. It's not, there's nothing this project is doing that's impacting that condition. But the geotech question I'll let Lily address. I don't have an answer for you on that one. but I did want to point that condition out to you the fact that common area I believe if staff could correct me if I'm wrong |
| 01:42:22.09 | Kevin McGowan | but it's... |
| 01:42:28.35 | Mary Wagner | as mapped out includes the roadway. So it is included in this budget and the maintenance obligation moving forward. The issue of maintenance, that easement altogether, is an issue for all of those property owners, as you all indicate it. to come to an agreement on amongst themselves. |
| 01:42:45.09 | Kristina Feller | Before we move to the Geotech, Director Whelan, Yeah, we are not here to discuss some agreement between everybody that uses Hivista or as residents on there. That's off the table. We're not discussing that. but from the standpoint of the CC&Rs, for this, because it is a condo conversion and because Um, this is an existing condition that is on their common area. because there are three parcels here that they own together. That's That's what we're asking about. Not, not anything outside of this applicants. area. That's why I'm asking about the metric of the current conditions. |
| 01:43:32.70 | Mary Wagner | Okay and if I heard you correctly Chair Feller you were saying I want a condition of approval that says that they'll maintain it at least at its current level. I think that I heard you say just now, which I think we could do, is that something in their CCNRs goes to how they maintain their roadway. I think the budget issue is really what you've been getting at. And I think that's covered by your condition number seven. |
| 01:43:56.78 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:43:57.00 | Mary Wagner | But if you think there's something specific about this property and this action that requires these condo owners to indicate in the CCNRs how they're going to work together amongst themselves to maintain the ease of the roadway that accesses their property Thank you. |
| 01:44:14.29 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:44:14.33 | Mary Wagner | I think you could you could condition that. I'm not sure what that looks like. I can work with Lily on wording, but you know, saying to include something in the CCNRs to show amongst yourselves how you're going to work on maintaining the roadway is not that far out of the realm of possibility or things we've done in other situations. |
| 01:44:35.25 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Thank you. |
| 01:44:38.29 | Director Whelan | Chairfeller, if you've If you don't mind repeating the question about the geotech question, as well and we have our public works director here that might be able to help as well. |
| 01:44:49.09 | Kristina Feller | There he is. Kevin McGowan, thank you for being here tonight. So the question is, can we condition approval to require a Geotechnical report. to assess the any existing erosion in any proposed mitigative measures to control any further erosion or to shore up any erosion elsewhere on the property can we do that |
| 01:45:25.17 | Director Whelan | So I'm taking a quick look at the the letter. So this would be would be above and beyond the work that Herzog dead. Is that. Correct, this would be a separate investigation regarding |
| 01:45:44.19 | Kristina Feller | My understanding is that Herzog only assessed the retaining wall. |
| 01:45:55.95 | Kevin McGowan | So Chair Feller, I'm hoping maybe I can add a little clarity to your question. So are you asking whether we can add a condition to this application to study the existing property to see if it's adding any instability to the area below the property itself, the area that Mr. and Mrs. Cox had a picture of, which is actually off of, I think it's Edwards down below. Is that correct? |
| 01:46:22.80 | Kristina Feller | Yeah, that area, that photograph is off and is is not on this applicant's property i was there today it's not on their property however there is a lot of erosion or signs of erosion. on this applicant's property, not related to the retaining wall on the on high Vista. So I just, you know, from the standpoint of, Um, you know safety and mitigation I just want to make sure that that that that the property is maintained in a way that will not contribute to further erosion. |
| 01:47:03.08 | Kevin McGowan | I understand. Let me add some clarity to the area down below on Edwards. We've been keeping an eye on this particular piece of roadway for the last several years. And we have had residents call us and indicate they are concerned, as we are as well. Now, this is partially a natural condition where the road Edwards was built many, many years ago. And it's got a very steep cut. Welcome to Sausalito. This is what we see a lot of. So, in this particular case, without getting into too much detail and concerned about your time as well. You have a little bit of a difference of type of soil in this area. It changes from the red shirt over to a sandstone, which is a little more yellow. So you are going to see a little bit more erosion associated with that sandstone. |
| 01:47:47.21 | Unknown | So you can. |
| 01:47:52.67 | Kevin McGowan | However, So far what I've observed, this is more of a natural condition. You see that those trees up above, those root systems expand and contract during the year. So far, what I'm seeing is this is a natural condition where we keep an eye on Now I haven't been on the applicant's property to find out if there is additional erosion and maybe you know more about this than I do. But I'm thinking that maybe a geotech might not be the right approach. Maybe we simply just need to review it to see if there's any necessary or if there has been any changes that are prevalent that show drainage conditions that are being modified that can increase the amount of erosion on the lower slope. What do you think of that? |
| 01:48:37.31 | Kristina Feller | Well I like that and Kevin you I know you are you and your whole department are so on top of these issues in Sausalito and I want to thank you for that. and particularly taking to heart all the recommendations from the landslide task force so I appreciate that as well And I would, welcome ongoing and active monitoring of, of any of these areas because they, this is not an isolated thing as you well know, |
| 01:49:03.04 | Kevin McGowan | This is not an |
| 01:49:06.10 | Kristina Feller | And certainly in our rainier season, there are some regular areas that I know you visit to monitor and maintain. And that is greatly appreciated by not just myself, but I'm sure our whole community. So I'd be happy with that. |
| 01:49:23.71 | Kevin McGowan | Okay. I'd be glad to review the site with the applicant and anybody else. And we can reach back out to Lily and her crew to find out how we can convey that information back to your commission and whether we need to do anything with that. Great. Kind of look to Lily and Mary to help me with the procedurally, how do we address that? |
| 01:49:50.01 | Director Whelan | So, I mean, we could, um, We could do just what the Director of Public Works said, my team can work with DPW to get that taken care of, and then we can transmit a one-way communication to the planning commission. Um, with Reddit. with respect to what we found. We could also add a condition that would require the applicant to do this with Public Works and Community Development Department to do the site inspection and see if there's any issues that need to be taken care of. |
| 01:50:32.01 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Commissioners I don't know your thoughts about this but I think I feel extremely confident with DPW and planning taking this on if we condition it for them to handle on a ministerial level. |
| 01:50:48.27 | Nastassya Saad | Definitely on board with that. It's a great offer. |
| 01:50:52.02 | Richard Graef | I'm supportive of that. Yes. supporter. Thank you. I'll support that. |
| 01:50:58.18 | Morgan Pierce | Thank you. |
| 01:50:58.20 | Mary Wagner | OK? So, Thank you. Sir, Chair Fowler, I apologize. Please, I'm sorry. |
| 01:51:05.37 | Maria | Thank you. |
| 01:51:05.47 | Mary Wagner | just going to |
| 01:51:05.98 | Maria | I think our public works director. I don't want him to leave yet though. |
| 01:51:07.48 | Mary Wagner | I don't want him to leave yet, though. Don't let him go. He's not allowed to turn his camera off yet either. So my suggestion was going to be to see if we could come up with wording that was satisfactory to the commission and that worked for your director of public works. Along the lines of saying, prior to recordation of the final map, the applicant shall submit evidence satisfactory that to the director of public works or his designee evidencing that and then I need Kevin to do the that, that the grading or What is the that? |
| 01:51:43.25 | Kevin McGowan | staff from Public Works and Community Development have reviewed the site and confirmed that there is no additional erosion caused by this particular site on the lower slope. |
| 01:51:58.07 | Mary Wagner | And if there is erosion that adequate THE FAMILY IS barriers or adequate improvements are made to address that concern something along those lines |
| 01:52:10.34 | Kevin McGowan | That's perfect. |
| 01:52:10.96 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 01:52:12.33 | Kristina Feller | And that can be at the community development and DPW level does not |
| 01:52:12.63 | Mary Wagner | That could be- |
| 01:52:18.07 | Kristina Feller | Unless there's something massive I which I'm not expecting would it need to rise back to the planning commission be handled by staff. |
| 01:52:26.94 | Mary Wagner | I'm sorry. And Madam Chair, since my mic is still off, may I go back to your first concern about the maintenance of the roadway that is part of the property that's at issue. I think you can add language to condition 6A which right now indicates that prior to recordation of the final map, the applicant will submit the declaration of restrictions required by the civil code that it includes and right now it says maintenance of all common areas and payment of all assessments and taxes you could add language there to say maintenance of all common areas including without limitation that portion of High Vista Road that is part of the property or part of the common area, something along those lines. |
| 01:53:11.39 | Kristina Feller | That's, I think... getting to exactly what we need to without diving into budgets and monetary issues, which we typically do not. want to do or get involved with here on this commission. but, but, We're looking for it to be maintained, you know, you know, in its current condition as well as sort of a metric and I know Commissioner Junius wanted to add something to that. |
| 01:53:37.87 | Andrew Junius | Just a question for the city attorney. I think the only concern I have with that kind of a condition is Is it? that you're not going to be What that's meaning is that these two new condo owners will participate in their pro rata share of and we will be able to roadway maintenance agreement. Are they going to be responsible for maintaining the entire road? |
| 01:54:00.53 | Mary Wagner | No. Neither, if I may. Chair Feller, this is not intended to address either of those issues. It's meant to say between these two condo owners, You have, I mean, it's like a drive, almost like a driveway issue, right? When you have a condo that has one driveway, you agree with yourselves, each other, how you're going to maintain and repair and fix that driveway so that it's at some acceptable level. I'm envisioning this is similar. So you, the condo owners of 195, 197, if I have those numbers correct, HiVista, are agreeing amongst yourselves that if there are issues with your portion of the roadway that abets your property How are you amongst yourselves going to deal with making those improvements? I'm fine with that. |
| 01:54:45.88 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:54:45.91 | Andrew Junius | I'm fine with that. |
| 01:54:47.17 | Mary Wagner | and I would suggest that it's too, you know, safety issue, Chair Feller. I don't know if the, You know, the commission wants to set the baseline at you know, current conditions, the property owners may want to have it be better. You know, that's up to them, right? But it's so long as it's safe to access their structure. |
| 01:55:05.08 | Kristina Feller | Well, so long as it's not less than the current conditions, I would say that's fine. |
| 01:55:10.58 | Mary Wagner | if the commission's comfortable with that, I have no, um, no real concern about that and would like that you know the property owner has concerns if they raised their hand they could let you know that as well. |
| 01:55:23.22 | Kristina Feller | Great. Um, yeah we'll ask the applicant up here in just a moment to confirm these that these conditions um but I just wanted to ask any other commissioners if there are any other comments on those the added language to the conditions on approval here. or any other issues beyond those two? Commissioner Luxenberg. |
| 01:55:48.33 | Jeffery Luxenberg | I'm not going to suggest that the item seven also referenced, acknowledge the road, not with a budget. I think I agree with commissioner Junius that if they were to do anything to the road and like treating it as a driveway, as, as the city attorney said that they would not, |
| 01:55:53.31 | Kevin McGowan | Thank you. |
| 01:55:53.36 | Kristina Feller | Bye. Bye. |
| 01:55:55.35 | Kevin McGowan | I think I agree. |
| 01:56:06.65 | Jeffery Luxenberg | uh they would do a special assessment they're not going to put enough money in to replace the road long term that's not well that's not logical they would but i i think if item 6a covers it that's fine it might be helpful to also have a reference that at least acknowledges the road because unlike most condominiums which are you know don't you, don't have an actual road going through there. Maybe some driveways, it would be acknowledged that the road exists in both 6A and 7, but if 6A covers it, I'm okay with that as well. |
| 01:56:45.32 | Maggie Cox | Thank you. |
| 01:56:45.33 | Kristina Feller | Okay. |
| 01:56:49.06 | Kristina Feller | And I guess, Mary, to your point about the public safety, if we can just keep that language in there as well, because part of maintaining it and not less than the concurrent conditions It is a public safety issue. |
| 01:57:02.12 | Mary Wagner | with respect to these two property owners. |
| 01:57:04.37 | Kristina Feller | Correct. Correct. Yes. Yes, correct. more. Yeah. Okay. Any other comments or deliberation from the commission on this particular application Anything else to raise? If not, I'm gonna ask the applicants to come back up here so we can just review the conditions that we've been discussing here to get their Um... it. to ensure that they understand what we have added in here and why and hopefully they certainly concur with our findings. Let's get you both unmuted there. Hey. All right. |
| 01:57:56.63 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 01:57:56.65 | Warren Forster | Thank you. |
| 01:57:57.69 | Kristina Feller | Okay. |
| 01:57:57.96 | Lucinda Eubanks | Why don't you go ahead? |
| 01:57:59.95 | Warren Forster | Yes. Sorry, I should have raised my hand earlier. I did just want to point out... couple of things. We did have a geotechnical report completed for our condo conversions specific to our property. This is not the Herzog report. We had one done by Geotech Engineering, which was part of that, what we submitted to the city. Um, And, Maybe some of this is my confusion, but I did just want to clarify that High Vista Road is entirely a private road. No portion of that is a driveway per se. we turned directly off high Vista road into our car ports. And so there's, um, It's all part of, I think our shared responsibility amongst our neighbors to maintain that it's not, specifically ours. |
| 01:58:58.38 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 01:58:59.17 | Warren Forster | Yeah. which we're happy to help maintain, but I, there's no, portion of high Vista that's I don't know if I'm saying this right, but like a fire play that it's specific |
| 01:59:09.26 | Kristina Feller | Can we allow our city attorney just to clarify? I don't think we were referring to it as a driver. We're using it as an example. Yes, I'm sorry. |
| 01:59:15.74 | Mary Wagner | Yes, I'm sorry. Sorry Chair Feller if I created confusion there. It was meant to be kind of an analogous situation where you have a condo conversion and you amongst yourselves the property owners decide how you're going to maintain a particular improvement. So you as the property owners of a private roadway own a portion of that private roadway and are responsible for it. And you're going to agree amongst yourselves if and when that needs improvement, how you're gonna handle that as common property owners. That's all that I was intending to apply. |
| 01:59:49.29 | Warren Forster | Okay, yeah, I just... Um, I guess I think the neighbors, everybody who uses the road is responsible. You know, us being one of the or I guess two actually, being duplex two of 16 residences who uses High Vista Road, that entire portion that crosses our property. |
| 02:00:16.94 | Kristina Feller | So what we wanted to The two conditions that we are recommending and advocating that we would like to make a motion on to approve your application tonight. The other option is if we can't agree on this, we can continue it or, or some other means which might delay you, is that number one, Um, that. that you as as the owners of 195, 197, you the portion of this high vista road and the retaining wall that is on your property that crosses through your property that you maintain it in a manner that is not less than what the existing condition is. And so that doesn't necessarily have to do with how you are putting your maintenance budget together. but as several of the other commissioners were alluding to that would, you know, if there are any issues then you can do a special assessment on it and maintain it appropriately. you know, we, this commission Um, it is not going to get involved it is not within our jurisdiction or remit to mandate some agreement with all of your other neighbors. All we can do is focus on your CC&Rs, your application, and the area that is on your property, and that is what we're doing. So we wanted to make sure that that condition. was not just clear to you, but also acceptable to you. And then the second one had to do with walking the property with community and Department of Public Works. If there is some other type of geotech report that we do not have access to, then we don't have access to it. And just by doing a walk with them, to also, it's also beneficial to you because in that way you can also have that discussion with them and then you can sort of record your current condition with the property. |
| 02:02:26.23 | Warren Forster | Absolutely. Yeah, no, that sounds agreeable to us, you know, particularly with Department of Public Works. We'd love to meet with them and make sure that they've seen the geotechnical report that we did generate specifically for this condo conversion. and, then perhaps it's just a semantics thing or I'm just not understanding, but Obviously we recognize that we need to maintain the retaining wall and the roadway. and maybe it's just that you're saying it that, you know, we're responsible to maintain it in its current condition, It is a shared responsibility. I'm getting lost. I'm not sure I just wanted to |
| 02:03:09.76 | Mary Wagner | Chair Feller, may I ask a question? Or because I'm understanding where the applicant, I'm sorry, Mr. Forster is coming from. that while they have some responsibility, there may be joint responsibility with the other property owners who utilize the roadway. So, you know, the driveway analogy only goes so far. I think you could say something along the lines, maintenance of all common areas, including without limitation, the road, you know, that portion of the roadway, we talked about that. to the extent that they're legally required to. because therefore I don't know what the arrangement is. Maybe that's the problem. We don't, there isn't an arrangement, you know, amongst these property owners on the shared costs for maintenance of the entire roadway. and particularly when you have a portion of the roadway that everyone utilizes, Sometimes those costs are dispersed differently. And I don't mean to belabor this conversation, Chair Feller, but I don't want to create and unexpected THE END OF burden on this applicant that the other property owners think they have that they don't currently have So I think we do need to be careful. the commission needs more information or if the applicants want to consult with their condo attorney on this. I know you know I see Mr. Woodside has raised his hand again I don't mean to start this whole discussion again, but I do understand the applicant's concern about them being responsible solely responsible for a portion of a roadway that may have that other property owners may also be obligated to contribute to and I'm not opining on the rights of these various private property owners. I just don't wanna create I think it's... |
| 02:04:54.23 | Kristina Feller | I think it's either if you can recommend language, that would be great. marry or augment what we've already recommended and agreed to on the commission. And if and in terms of The hands I see going up, we've already closed public comments, so we will not be entertaining any more public comment at this time. Um, or we can continue this item to allow the applicants to negotiate with their with their neighbors in whatever way they want or come up with something that their lawyers would recommend But there has to be recognition by this applicant that they are responsible for maintaining this road, this private road, or portions of this private road particularly that on their property and this retaining wall. And unfortunately, up until this hearing Yeah. we're not sure you know based on public comment that there is recognition of that so we just want to make sure that this is done as part of these CCNRs and part of this condo conversion to recognize that. There is a public safety issue here. |
| 02:06:11.20 | Mary Wagner | Yeah, and Chair Keller, I don't know if my suggested language of to the extent legally required is helpful or not. because I don't think it gets to what you're saying, which is that portion of the roadway is their sole responsibility. And I don't know that that's legally accurate. And so I think if you put in to the extent legally required that covers the city's perspective like they're going to take care of what their portion of the responsibility is that portion of responsibility is a matter between these private property owners |
| 02:06:38.37 | Kristina Feller | Right, so the applicants need to, either Thank you. say they agree to that or say they don't agree to that or offer something else. So we know how to either continue this item or Um, you know approve it tonight with the with the condition that you're recommending as our city attorney |
| 02:07:04.97 | Warren Forster | I think we fundamentally agreed to we would like our attorney to review the language. just to make sure it's, you know. that. works for us. |
| 02:07:21.86 | Kristina Feller | OK. |
| 02:07:22.28 | Alethea Shehzad | What you're saying is that you're okay with moving forward with the language of the city attorney is suggesting with having our attorney look at it for approval. Is that what you're saying? |
| 02:07:36.03 | Warren Forster | Yeah, I'm suggesting that the language that the city attorney is putting forward is acceptable to us, but with the caveat that I would like our attorney to review it. |
| 02:07:46.63 | Mary Wagner | we would need to bring that back chair fellar i'm not comfortable recommending a condition that other you know legal counsel wants to weigh in on and having that you know we would need to come back to the commission from my perspective |
| 02:07:54.44 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 02:07:57.55 | Kristina Feller | So I think what we have to do is continue this hearing either to a date certain or a date uncertain. and I'd want to know from the applicant, separate from this issue regarding the private road and retaining wall. are you comfortable so we don't have to go back over this again at the next hearing. the issue related to walking the property with community development and DPW. Is there any issue with that? additional language to the condition. |
| 02:08:27.20 | Warren Forster | That's definitely agreeable. |
| 02:08:29.88 | Kristina Feller | All right. |
| 02:08:30.13 | Warren Forster | you |
| 02:08:30.66 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 02:08:30.71 | Warren Forster | Thank you. |
| 02:08:31.38 | Kristina Feller | Okay. So I think what we need to do at this time is continue you this hearing to And I see our Community Development Director Whalen here either to a date certain or a date uncertain. Um, And if you have date in mind director Whelan that's available that we could offer to the applicant of course they might have to confirm with their attorney |
| 02:09:01.99 | Director Whelan | but we can offer. Thank you, Chair Feller. And if the applicant, The next meeting of the planning commission is June 16th. I'm not sure if you Um, would be able to provide confirmation Sorry, I'm just waiting for the applicant to |
| 02:09:19.38 | Warren Forster | Yeah. Oh, I. Sure. Thank you. |
| 02:09:24.64 | Maria | All right. |
| 02:09:24.93 | Warren Forster | I have my wife. Sorry, we got a baby in touch. |
| 02:09:27.58 | Maria | I'm going to be in Just quick question. would tonight's or would the condo conversion be conditionally approved this evening if we accept it to the attorney's language and then okay so Are we finished off? Are you comfortable with that language? Because it seems like otherwise we're just continuing this longer. And I think that the language the attorney proposed by legally extent or by, what the law requires would be acceptable. |
| 02:09:58.48 | Jeffery Luxenberg | We're okay with it if you guys get to go down. |
| 02:09:58.98 | Maria | I think that's fine. |
| 02:10:01.19 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Exactly. |
| 02:10:03.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 02:10:03.27 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Yeah. |
| 02:10:03.28 | Unknown | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 02:10:03.84 | Maria | Um, That way we can conditionally be approved and we'll do the walk through with the |
| 02:10:09.65 | Shahzad Shehzad | All right. Thank you. |
| 02:10:10.51 | Maria | instead of continuing if that's okay. |
| 02:10:13.81 | Shahzad Shehzad | That's totally fine with us. |
| 02:10:13.88 | Maria | Thank you. Been in with my pals. |
| 02:10:17.22 | Shahzad Shehzad | Say I will. |
| 02:10:18.15 | Maria | Yeah. |
| 02:10:18.71 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. . |
| 02:10:19.70 | Maria | Yeah. |
| 02:10:19.72 | Shahzad Shehzad | Oh. |
| 02:10:19.97 | Warren Forster | Thank you. |
| 02:10:20.23 | Kristina Feller | No. |
| 02:10:20.63 | Maria | Bye. |
| 02:10:21.22 | Warren Forster | He's asleep. |
| 02:10:24.41 | Kristina Feller | Well treasure those moments while he's asleep. |
| 02:10:28.23 | Warren Forster | Yeah, I trust me. |
| 02:10:29.57 | Kristina Feller | Far between. Yeah. |
| 02:10:30.47 | Warren Forster | Yeah. |
| 02:10:31.84 | Kristina Feller | Okay, so I think then thank you both for your input on that. So at this time I'd like to pull it back to the commission and ask if I have, if there is a motion to approve, as conditioned by the two points related to the private road and retaining wall and also the walk with DPW and community development. |
| 02:11:02.75 | Jeffery Luxenberg | move. |
| 02:11:05.23 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair. Director Whalen, can you please take the roll call here? No. |
| 02:11:12.05 | Director Whelan | Commissioner Saad, Yeah. Commissioner Junius. |
| 02:11:17.67 | Richard Graef | Yes. |
| 02:11:18.43 | Director Whelan | Commissioner Luxenberg? |
| 02:11:20.17 | Richard Graef | Thank you. |
| 02:11:20.20 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Yes. |
| 02:11:21.04 | Director Whelan | I'm going to go ahead |
| 02:11:22.18 | Richard Graef | Thank you. |
| 02:11:22.19 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Oh, yeah. |
| 02:11:23.49 | Director Whelan | Sure, Feller. Yes. That carries five zero. Any action of the planning commission may be appealed within 10 days of the action to the city council. |
| 02:11:32.08 | Mary Wagner | Yes. |
| 02:11:32.52 | Director Whelan | complete a required appeal form and pay the appeal fee within 10 days of the action for the appeal to be timely filed. If you have questions about how to file an appeal, please contact the project planner, Larissa. or the Community Development Department and our contact information is online. |
| 02:11:53.02 | Kristina Feller | Thank you so much, Director Whalen. I think we are ready for item six on our agenda. break. |
| 02:11:58.59 | Director Whelan | Thank you. |
| 02:11:59.42 | Kristina Feller | And I'm sick. |
| 02:11:59.98 | Director Whelan | is a step session for a project at 310 Harbor Drive for a design review permit, a conditional use permit, and a nonconformity permit to remove and replace existing boat docks in the Clipper Yacht Harbor basins 3 and 4. The study session will familiarize commissioners and the public with the proposal and provide an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments. study session meeting is open to the public and will include a public comment period No action or decisions on the requested entitlements will be taken at the study session. and we have contract planner, Tricia Stevens, who will be presenting the staff report this evening. of the |
| 02:12:39.83 | Patricia Stevens | Okay, good evening. I'm going to share my screen. |
| 02:12:50.99 | Director Whelan | And Trisha, before you start, if you want to mention also who else from the staff consultant team is here to answer any questions for the commission as well. |
| 02:13:01.96 | Patricia Stevens | Okay, I will do that. We just |
| 02:13:11.12 | Patricia Stevens | Okay, can everybody see my PowerPoint? you know Okay, good evening. I'm Chair Feller and members of the commission. I'm Patricia Stevens, consultant with MIG, working on behalf of the city. I do have Miranda Miller. here with MIT who was instrumental in preparing the mitigated NGDEC I'm here to record notes and answer any questions as they come up. So I'm here to present the, um, 310 Harbor Drive project, also known as a Clipper Yacht Harbor dock replacement project. And As Director Whalen said, the purpose of the study session is to familiarize the commission and the public on the project. and ask questions, provide comments. There is the mitigated NEDEC that's on the streets right now and we can take oral comments on the MND. However, if anybody, If any members of the public have comments on the MND, we ask that those be put in writing before June 21st. AND, YOU KNOW, and there would be a public hearing at a later date. Notices were sent out to residents and property owners within 300 feet, as well as to public agencies. |
| 02:14:45.76 | Patricia Stevens | So, This is the Clipper Yacht Harbor. And this is basins three and four at the end of Harbor Drive. This is part of the larger Pleper Yacht Harbor Marina area. There's existing parking and commercial facilities and basin two. and the fuel dock. and area. but we're focusing on Basins three and four at this time. the The property is located in the waterfront zoning district in the Marinship specific plan. And it's currently developed with existing docks. Just a few notes about surrounding uses. To the Northwest is ES40 houseboat docks. And as I mentioned, It's surrounded by the remainder of the Clipper Yacht Marine facilities and commercial uses and Basin 2 and the fuel dock. These are some photos of the existing doc. This is a photo of the existing wooden docks that would be replaced. This is the north end of the project. And these are the houseboats to the north. And this is overlooking Richardson Bay. And this is the edge of a basin four. To the right is the peninsula that has parking between basins three and four. |
| 02:16:28.02 | Patricia Stevens | So the project that's before you is for design review, conditional use permit and a non-conformity permit. It's replacement of the existing docs. The number of slips would be decreased slightly from 427 slips to 426. All the new improvements are water side improvements. The only land side improvements activities would be the staging areas for construction. So the conditional use permit is needed for the existing liveaboards, which I'm gonna talk about in just a moment. And the nonconformity permit is to recognize the existing marina that was constructed prior to the current zoning and specific plan for the area. |
| 02:17:26.02 | Patricia Stevens | I want to fill more detail on the proposed improvements. The actual square footage devoted to the dock structure would decrease slightly by a couple of thousand square feet. The number of piles would decrease from 284 to THE CITY IS A to 11. The slip account, as I mentioned, would decrease by one, but you will see that the mix in terms of number of slips would be redistributed between basins three and four. And then the existing number of liveaboards is 27 and proposed is 27. There is a mitigated negative declaration that was released on May 21st. And the comment period ends at 5 p.m. on June 21st. The findings of the MND are that significant impacts can be mitigated to a less than significant level with the mitigation measures consistent with CEQA. I should note that There are mitigation measures related to marine Mammals, fish and eelgrass. And I'm going to talk about that in just a moment. And cultural resources and tribal resources and geology and soils. |
| 02:18:59.98 | Patricia Stevens | THE CITY IS A CITY IS The general plan designation in both the 1995 general plan and the new 2021 general plan is for waterfront. AND I THINK THAT'S A Because this project was deemed complete before the adoption of the 2021 plan. the 1995 general plan is applicable. but we did provide information on the 2021 general plan, in order for information purposes. Thank you. AND I THINK THAT'S A both general plans allow for dock replacement in existing marinas, even though new marinas are not permitted. And we felt that the being able to replace the dock supports economic vitality vitality and maritime uses in the areas. And the project, THE FAMILY. addresses sea level rise and habitat protection, which I will talk about in just a moment. A few notes about the MarinShip specific plan and zoning compliance. the As mentioned, it's in the waterfront zoning. overlay district with the waterfront and specific plan. and dock replacement is permitted. up to a 10% increase. In this case, the project would not increase the number of births It complies with the development standards and the existing parking meets requirements. 510 existing spaces, which meets the standards for the number of births in the marina. AND I THINK IT'S A LOT OF And THE specific plan and the zoning require new boat tie-outs for new in this case, there's a lot of because it's a dock replacement and there's not new burrs we have the finding that no new boat tie-ups would be required the existing marina has a public dock that's available for rent that's between basins two and three And the fuel dock also has free tie-ups for two hours. people obtain fuel. |
| 02:21:42.52 | Patricia Stevens | I wanted to say a few words about the liveaboards And we as the conditional use permit would recognize the existing 25 liveaboards. and we compared the existence of the 27 level boards against the current standards for liver boards and um The number of liveaboards did not exceed 10% of the birth. In fact, it would be about 6%. And there's a number of standards for liveaboards relating to safety and sewer. and mooring and making sure that all the vessels are navigable and no commercial uses and no charter. And we did find that it meets all, the liveaboards meets all those standards. There's also a standard having to do with giving preference to low and moderate income tenants. And the marina operators have confirmed that they do give preference as vacancies occur. |
| 02:22:51.23 | Patricia Stevens | I'd like to go over a few other issues that have been raised as this project was reviewed. And first of all, I wanted to talk about construction noise. And as the new peers will be installed they would be installed with pile drivers and as I think everybody knows pile drivers are quite noisy And at the north end of the docks, It's about 50 feet or so away from the existing existing houseboats and at the maximum, those noise levels could reach up to 95 decibels in the worst case scenario. although most of the construction will take place 200 or more feet away. So, um... THE CITY, does not have an upper limit for construction noise. Instead, the noise ordinance relies on I'm not sure. hours of operation and there are certain standards for hours of operation for construction noise and the project will comply with those hours of operation we did explore with the applicant some ideas on how to reduce the noise of the pile drivers first of all we looked at using a vibration hammer. and the applicant provided evidence that that's not feasible because vibration hammers are not suitable for these type of concrete piles We also explore the use of a baffling to address above water noise. And there is some types of baffling that are available. However, the manufacturer has indicated that Um, the baffling affects the performance of the engines and would not be feasible. So our conclusion on that is that the hours of operation, daytime hours would be would mitigate for the noise impacts So I've done a few words on marine habitat. construction, of the new docs. could affect fish and marine mammals from the standpoint of both underwater noise And, um, and turbidity. And the applicant will be using best practices to address marine habitat one is to among several best practices one is to do a soft start which will be a soft start that will allow the fish and marine mammals to move away from the site during the first part of the pile driving, and then also a turbidity curtain will be installed around the construction area with curtains hanging below the water level to, help reduce the amount of turbidity. So with those measures as well as others, we found that to be a less than significant impact. So on eelgrass, eelgrass is a, considered a sensitive habitat and a study was done on eelgrass and which concluded that because this is a dock replacement there should not be any impacts on eelgrass however there is mitigation proposed that would call for pre and post construction surveys to monitor the eelgrass um, With regard to flooding and sea level rise, the Flooding levels without sea level rise is expected at seven and a half feet above mean low water, And with sea level rise, it's expected to be seven and a half to 10 feet and the gangways, the construction has addressed this and the gangways will be built at around 10 feet over mean low. water. So it's designed to address sea level rise So as far as traffic in particular construction traffic, there was expressed some concern about, using solely truck traffic, construction trucks, to bring in materials and to export demolition materials. with the applicant, the idea of using barges to bring in the peers and construction materials and to export them. um And that raised a lot of other issues that didn't appear to be feasible in that the barge, if barges were to be used, it would be quite costly and that they would need to have another access location to offload onto trucks, which would create impact someplace else. So the number of trucks per day is, projected at three to five trucks per day. So with the relatively low level of construction trucks, these other options were not pursued. With regard to cultural resources, staff did have a consultation with the Federated Indians of Grattan Rancheria who had concerns about the potential for finding shell mounds in the bay. Um, And our cultural expert did look at this and found that there's a low probability of discovery of shell mounds and other Native American, um, items because of the historic dredging in this area. This is all fill area, it's been dredged in the past, but there may be some potential. So there's mitigation that addresses monitoring archeological, THE CITY IS GOING TO BE archaeological I can't even say the word, anyway, to be present during sediment disturbances. So there's mitigation related to that. Thank you. So, |
| 02:30:05.93 | Patricia Stevens | Just in conclusion, this is to familiarize the commission with the the project and as I mentioned, comments are due on the M and D on June 21st. And after that we will respond to comments and then bring this back for a public hearing. at a date to be re as of the date of this study session, we have not received any comments from the public related to the MND or any comments related to anything so far. So, but there's still time left. So with that, that concludes my presentation and I'm here to answer any questions the commission might have. And I'm going to stop sharing my screen. |
| 02:30:57.37 | Kristina Feller | Patricia thank you so much for such a thorough report and presentation tonight it certainly always helps us grapple with some of the questions in our mind as we've reviewed this in our packet. So thank you so much. for that. Um, Let me open this up to the commission for any questions for staff. Commissioner Saad I'm going to start with you and see if you have any questions for Tricia this evening |
| 02:31:23.15 | Nastassya Saad | I had one, I think, let me look at my... Thank you. Thank you. you notes. I think it's on page 17 of the staff report. Let me just jump over there. It was In regards Yes, page 17, item B. This is specific to the marine mammals. Don't in any way doubt what is said here. I was just curious about if there are any, where the, just where the backing came from. So the Marine Mammals section is basically saying, you know, they may be impacted from noise amongst other things, generally highly mobile. with large home ranges and therefore they're expected to be capable of avoiding those areas for short periods of time with little adverse impact to an individual marine mammal. And I was just curious if there's some study that can be I'm assuming that information came from somewhere. Just because it does seem like a decent amount of duration through kind of many seasons. And I'm sure it's taken into account, but do you happen to know where that came from? You don't have to answer it now, but something that we can get pointed to, or maybe even the public can get pointed to. |
| 02:32:48.94 | Patricia Stevens | So there's a more thorough analysis of that in the MND. I didn't know if you had a chance to read that section, but it's based on research and study done by our biologist at MIG. |
| 02:33:03.07 | Nastassya Saad | you |
| 02:33:03.39 | Patricia Stevens | Thank you. |
| 02:33:03.51 | Nastassya Saad | Okay, so that came from that. Yeah, I did look through it. I might have not seen that specific point. And maybe one more point from, I was just in the MND. I just remember reading, I have a note here that there are, there's a lot of information. So I'm not sure where I think page 56 of the MND, reflective gangways are being used, which are not what was used previously, if I understood correctly. And I didn't know if there was any particular reason that they were to be reflective versus the current set that supposedly is not reflective. I don't know if it was a safety issue or there was any concern around the real activity there. |
| 02:33:47.97 | Patricia Stevens | I'm not sure. I think that's a very good question for the applicant who will be coming up. They can explain why that type of thing |
| 02:33:56.21 | Patricia Stevens | But she's... |
| 02:33:56.51 | Nastassya Saad | it's a good thing. |
| 02:33:56.53 | Patricia Stevens | Thank you. |
| 02:33:56.55 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. |
| 02:33:56.65 | Patricia Stevens | Thank you. |
| 02:33:56.70 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. Okay, perfect. And then I can ask that and then. One more point from THE negative declaration, which let me just jump there. I believe was on page. I'm sorry, everything is suddenly reloading for me. So just give me a second. |
| 02:34:26.36 | Nastassya Saad | So on page five, this is really specific, but it said that divers will recover non buoyant debris discharge into coastal waters as soon as possible after loss. And I was just curious if anyone knew about the practice there, is it that if there is a loss, then a team is called in, is somebody standing by on staff? Did if anyone, and this could be for the applicant as well, how that setup works. |
| 02:35:00.15 | Patricia Stevens | I don't know. |
| 02:35:00.33 | Nastassya Saad | I think that's a good question. |
| 02:35:00.81 | Patricia Stevens | That's an excellent question for the |
| 02:35:03.03 | Nastassya Saad | applicant to answer. Okay. Okay. We'll hold that one off then too. Thank you. I think those were some of the points that stuck out to me, |
| 02:35:09.97 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you, Commissioner. Just sort of a point of clarification, Tricia, before I move on here. Um, our, this commission's questions on the M and D. Are those being recorded and as part of the public comment period, will these questions also be responded circulated to the public and responded to. for public consumption as well? |
| 02:35:35.82 | Patricia Stevens | Yes, we'll summarize the commissioner's comments. and respond to them. |
| 02:35:41.19 | Kristina Feller | Okay, great. Thank you. |
| 02:35:43.03 | Patricia Stevens | Yes. |
| 02:35:43.06 | Kristina Feller | Yes. Thank you. |
| 02:35:43.36 | Andrew Junius | Thank you. |
| 02:35:45.52 | Kristina Feller | Commissioner Junius do you have any questions for staff at this time? |
| 02:35:49.07 | Andrew Junius | Sure, just a couple. Trisha, great report, really fascinating project. We're looking forward to the next hearing when we get to ask the applicants a few questions. I'm really curious, the power driving we all know is extremely disruptive and I know it can't be really avoided here. Did I miss something? Do you have a duration of the power driving? estimate |
| 02:36:12.78 | Patricia Stevens | it's It's going to be over several months and over a couple of different years. I am not sure off the top of my head how, what the duration of each pile drive is, if it's seconds or minutes or the applicant might be able to provide some more details on it. I know in the noise section at M&D we did talk about that some, but I think the applicant could provide more detail on the construction method there. |
| 02:36:48.57 | Andrew Junius | And you mentioned one more question about the pile driving. you mentioned ways to mitigate, which I know are extremely difficult. I'm a little bit familiar with some of this stuff. did, did the, and again, probably a question for the applicant, but was, were drill piles considered at all, or is that like impossible because it's underwater? because I do know that that's a way to really reduce the noise. You're not pile driving anymore. You're basically using a giant auger Drill a hole. and then you place the pile in there so you totally different construction method. maybe a little bit more expensive, but it certainly dramatically, I think, reduces the noise. that the community is going to experience with the power driving |
| 02:37:30.42 | Patricia Stevens | Would that be similar to the vibrator hammer? Are you talking about something different than the vibrator? |
| 02:37:35.35 | Andrew Junius | This is true. This is really you drill the hole and post in as opposed to hammering it in. Now, again, I think there might be, I'm probably just simplifying this dramatically Thank you. some serious you know, underwater. conditions maybe maybe you have to buy you know you have to drive them in this case because you're driving them into Bay Mudd or something like that but it's certainly a question I think the applicant will THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 02:37:56.98 | Patricia Stevens | Okay, yeah, we didn't explore that as an alternative. We did look at the other alternatives that I mentioned, |
| 02:37:57.07 | Andrew Junius | Okay. |
| 02:38:02.99 | Patricia Stevens | I'm not sure if you're a we could have the applicant We've found her that. |
| 02:38:06.94 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Great questions. Thank you. Commissioner Luxenberg, |
| 02:38:15.68 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you, Chair Fowler. I have a few questions. These are more related to the study session portion than the MND. um there's a on the staging area is there and maybe this is better for the applicant but uh that area is clearly used by all those people on those boats that is well used When they finish doing the staging, are they going to clean up and landscape that area? Because that would be a good thing to accomplish for the people that are going to be on those boats. |
| 02:38:48.92 | Patricia Stevens | To my knowledge that after the staging is done, that there's not any proposed improvements that hasn't been articulated in the materials, but I think the applicant could address whether or not that's possible. |
| 02:39:06.08 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay, thank you. Second question is, you noted that there were 27 liveaboards And in your report notes that it can go up to 10%. Is there a reason they're not considering more liveaboards when given the severe housing shortages across the whole state of California that They could take the opportunity to have more live aboards. Is there a reason that they can't do that? |
| 02:39:34.99 | Patricia Stevens | It would have been my understanding that they could possibly go up to 10%, but all the application materials indicated that they I wanted to maintain the existing number of 27 |
| 02:39:47.83 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay, and then I can ask them if there's a reason that I'm not going to increase it. Third question is, there's a note in the report about a third gangway that's not ADA compliant. Is there a reason If the other two are that this one can't be and doesn't need to be, |
| 02:40:08.39 | Patricia Stevens | AND I THINK IT'S A GOOD I don't have any information on that. I can find that out. I don't have to. take that as a question and do some research on it unless the applicant can talk about it |
| 02:40:19.96 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay, thank you. Lastly, what happens to the boats during construction? The boats in basins three and four, I mean, the others will be impacted by noise and whatever, but what happens to the ones that are there? Do they get temporarily relocated or what happens to them? |
| 02:40:32.69 | Patricia Stevens | . |
| 02:40:39.23 | Patricia Stevens | Yeah, the applicant has indicated that they'll be temporarily there'll be a staging that they'll be temporarily relocated to other basins and then moved back after the construction. So it'll be phased and and then replaced. |
| 02:40:59.36 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay. And then finally, you indicated that they're handling the sea level rise. How does the I mean, did the gangplanks just continue to rise? Is there a limit to how, I mean, they float, right? So they would just keep going up. But is there a limit to how far they can go up or they designed for a certain amount of sea level rise? How are they handling that? |
| 02:41:30.33 | Patricia Stevens | THE END OF I'm not sure I'll have to take a look at that or perhaps the applicant can clarify that. |
| 02:41:37.25 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Okay. I'm sure if I were those of my questions at this |
| 02:41:38.19 | Patricia Stevens | Yeah. it's my understanding that Bursts will be, the docks will be built at a 10 foot elevation, but I'm not sure about the gangways. |
| 02:41:51.49 | Kristina Feller | Right. Thank you very much Commissioner Luxembourg I'm Vice Chair Graff. If you have questions for staff, |
| 02:41:58.83 | Richard Graef | Not very many. Um, I was wondering if there's ever going to be what amounts to story polls out there to kind of show from landside view where, the extent of the construction or the reconstruction as It's a little premature for that, I realize, but I was just curious as to whether that's been thought of. Um, Let's see, I guess the eelgrass issue is not an issue. I had a question not so much about this project, but the public docs Um, I've always wondered about that public docket because I never see any boats there and you can't go there. and It's locked up. I don't know. how or why it works. really not. germane because I project probably. Um... the, uh, the ramp. I think that I WANT TO THINK THAT. Luxembourg was referring to, as I understand it, the ramps uh, are long enough so that if and when And when the docks rise, they go up and down with the tide anyway. So they'll go up with sea level rise ramps are apparently long enough so that they could accommodate any rise in the dot. That's what I understand, but maybe that should get clarified. Um, And I had the same question about the non ADA ramp, why is it? not. ADA compliant. That's really How about all I can? |
| 02:44:03.67 | Kristina Feller | Thank you, Vice Chair. Yes, Commissioner Junius. |
| 02:44:06.83 | Andrew Junius | I appreciate that Chair Feller. One more quick addition, Commissioner Graff raised an excellent question, probably not. critical but I sure would like the applicant to explain why the public doc isn't It's just, and now I'm realizing what he's talking about and I know exactly where it is walk out there and I've never seen it used. It's locked off. not available to the public. So if that's That's certainly something I'd be curious as to why and what I think there might be some title issues. I think it might be difficult to get votes in there. At times maybe it needs to be dredged, We'd sure like some information about that. |
| 02:44:43.38 | Kristina Feller | Yes, thank you. Thank you both for raising that. Definitely a question on probably all of our minds. since there's so few public docs as well. But if you're going to go to the trouble to designate one, might as well actually make it public. Um, So just a, couple additional questions Tricia again thank you for the presentation and the report but you know, first of all I'd like to get some more information about these piles and Commissioner Junius was on to something regarding an over pile which is Basically, if you think about it like a giant corkscrew. And you can do a reverse one where you're drilling and pouring concrete at the same time through a sleeve. And so If if if you have less piles or the plan is to have less piles than what you have now why aren't some of the pile locations the same as what we have now even if they're larger and structurally more have more integrity than what's existing right now that would have much less impact on the all the environmental concerns here. So I'd really like to understand that. This is exactly what San Francisco did, by the way. And it was, incredibly successful Um, And you know, it was a little bit even more difficult, I think, in San Francisco because of the current and the tides. I'm not sure. in regarding the mitigated negative declaration you know just a general question for staff including Director Whalen here why is this commission Not. issued an MND immediately when it's available for public review I don't know why we're not immediately given these things and on the list of priority to get them because It's this commission. that has to review every single one of them. And so for us to, you know, play detective and try to find it or wait around and figure out that there's one in our staff report is really not. not right I think you know just a general statement not just for this project for but for all projects we lose time in our ability to review them you know, it's not like reading a great novel. You have to take some time to really digest what's there and think about it and and and you know at least for me read it read certain portions of it a couple times to fully comprehend what i'm reading So I would ask that we be copied on all of those immediately the minute that they're available for public consumption As it relates to the general plan, Tricia, Um, When was this application received? And I'm trying to figure out why it's the Marinship specific plan and not the update, the 2021 update. Not that there's a huge difference because we incorporated the marineship specific, but I'd really like to understand that. |
| 02:48:02.61 | Patricia Stevens | The application was originally filed in 2018, and then it was deemed complete in I believe it was September of 2020. So it was several months before the new general plan So my understanding from city attorney is that AND I THINK THAT'S A the, The date at which it's deemed complete is the operative date. So that's the uh, The 1995 general plan would be the applicable one, but of course a Marinship specific plan and the overlay district are applicable. |
| 02:48:41.76 | Kristina Feller | Okay. And then I also wanted to, There are a number of things I don't understand about this that I want to, and maybe it's premature for this, but I also really want to understand Um, maybe when this applicant is intending to do some of the heavier civil work because you know it you know there's certain moratoriums within richardson bay specific to and you know all of those sorts of things and I'm sure that will be considered, but I'd like to understand if that is an ongoing conversation that you're having with the applicant aware of that I believe they are, but I'd like to ask that on the public record if I may. |
| 02:49:39.10 | Patricia Stevens | Okay. I would have to do a little bit more research on that to THEIR OWN HIGHER. in terms of the construction dates. The applicant has given a construction schedule, but that may be modified now so we can ask the applicant that. |
| 02:49:57.16 | Kristina Feller | Well, and in fairness to them, I know it'll depend when they might actually get an approval for this. I know this is just a study session, I just want to be mindful of things as we're starting the conversation, the dialogue. And then in returns and in terms of |
| 02:50:10.67 | Kevin McGowan | and in the next one, |
| 02:50:13.46 | Kristina Feller | who you circulated this MND to do we this commission has not received a list of who it's been and requested for the for comment so as an example has Bay Wave been given a copy has the sea level rise and subsidence task force been given a copy of this to comment. you know, has SFEI been given a copy, you know, RBRA, I mean, not that we're a member of RBRA, I just really like to under understand that a little bit better because you know, what we're what the city is apparently looking at is also these types of things being modeled through bay wave so that we're actually feeding into our Um, into BayWave and getting these modeled with with the tides, with the impact, with the sea level rise with the subsidence and so on and I know that this particular harbors, you know, certainly built up their they're at grade, but when you talk about these docs being 10 feet above something rather, 10 feet above what? I don't really know what that measurement means. I don't know if it's a 10 feet above the bottom of the ocean of the bay floor. I don't know if it's 10 feet above where it is today. I don't know what that really means. So maybe you can answer, answer that too. |
| 02:51:47.42 | Patricia Stevens | THE END OF THE END OF THE of, Let me... do a little reconnaissance on that. the notices this the MND went through the state clearinghouse so all the state agencies and federal agencies would receive it and then we did send the notices to a fairly long list of different agencies If you give me a second, I can pull up who received it, but it's a fairly long list of local Local groups. |
| 02:52:21.54 | Kristina Feller | Yeah, I'm not, you know, I don't want to put you on the spot. I'm not asking you to read us a whole list necessarily, but it's important that this commission know who this is being circulated to because you know even our own sea level rise task force you know and subsidence task force doesn't know anything about this. EDAC doesn't know anything about this. And so, you know, Bay Wave, hasn't hit their radar. and although it might go through a state clearing house, these are really, your local direct sphere of influence that probably has more to say about it. than anybody else. And I think it's important to give them the opportunity for that feedback. And because it hasn't even been issued to them and they are really you know, it's within their area of expertise, I think it's really important that we get it to them. |
| 02:53:19.74 | Patricia Stevens | Mm-hmm. I'll work with a director of Waylon and go back to the list of who we sent it to. And if there's any gaps there, we're still fairly early in the M and D review process here. So we're not even halfway through it. So I made a list of the ones that you've noticed. they haven't been notified. I'll work on getting Sure. of the items to them. |
| 02:53:46.81 | Kristina Feller | And I'm sure all the members of this commission you know, might have their ideas too about who it should go to and I think each of us should be given that opportunity to give you the feedback so we get the best you know, response back. That's the goal at the end of the day, no matter what. Not to belabor it or delay it, but you need substantive impact, you know, you know, input to this in a timely way and June 21st is really not that far away to read the type of document this is so I'm hoping that you are going to extend that that period. that would be the right thing to do. . |
| 02:54:29.48 | Patricia Stevens | Okay, I'll go back and review the list See if there's any gaps there. Okay. |
| 02:54:34.68 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Okay, that sounds good. |
| 02:54:36.99 | Patricia Stevens | Okay. |
| 02:54:38.02 | Kristina Feller | Appreciate that, Tricia, thank you. |
| 02:54:40.60 | Patricia Stevens | Yeah. There's... went to like 53 different local groups. And so I'll go back and review that and work with Director Waylon on that. |
| 02:54:51.73 | Kristina Feller | Okay. |
| 02:54:52.48 | Patricia Stevens | Okay. |
| 02:54:52.50 | Kristina Feller | Okay. That sounds great. |
| 02:54:55.72 | Maggie Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:54:55.74 | Patricia Stevens | Okay. |
| 02:54:55.98 | Maggie Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:54:56.09 | Kristina Feller | Um, |
| 02:54:56.11 | Maggie Cox | Thank you. |
| 02:54:57.50 | Kristina Feller | I'm sure that there'll be a number of other questions that come up. I mean, at this time, do the commissioners have any more questions for staff at this time? Okay. |
| 02:55:08.45 | Andrew Junius | Just one real quick one, Chair Fowler, thank you. So clarify again where exactly we are in the process is is that June 21st date, theoretically, the close of the public comment, and then the document comes back to us some type of certification vote. Is that basically the next couple of steps? |
| 02:55:26.81 | Patricia Stevens | Uh, yes. So June 21st is the end of the comment period. We will take all the comments we received and provide prepare a response to comments and And then we'll be providing a new staff report that updates things as necessary and also provides a recommendation and conditions of approval, and then bring it back for a public hearing. |
| 02:55:54.09 | Andrew Junius | Thank you. I agree with Chair Feller that we'd really like to see that list of who got it. as soon as possible. because that's critical. |
| 02:56:03.43 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. Yeah, okay. Yeah, and then theoretically we get the draft and then final, and there'll be, you know, public hearings in between that. |
| 02:56:08.56 | Kevin McGowan | Yeah. |
| 02:56:14.55 | Kristina Feller | Um, Okay. Let's go ahead then, if we have no further comments for staff directly, let's go ahead and open this up to the applicant. so we can have a look at sort of what they have to present and, And I know they've been listening probably intently to some of the questions that they might be able to address in their presentation and, and, um, and enter into a dialogue with us as well. So I'd like to invite them. up here on screen. If Zoom team, you can help. facilitate that. |
| 02:56:56.26 | Kristina Feller | Hi, Casey, how are you? |
| 02:56:57.17 | Casey | Hi, I'm Casey. I'm the vice president of Clifford Yacht Harbor. I'm here with Gushmita. I don't know if she's on, she is the one going to be presenting our PowerPoint. |
| 02:57:07.74 | Kristina Feller | Okay. |
| 02:57:08.43 | Casey | Christian did a good job with most of it. Usmita just has a shorter |
| 02:57:08.46 | Kristina Feller | I don't know. |
| 02:57:13.19 | Casey | Ah. |
| 02:57:14.15 | Kristina Feller | Hi, everybody. How are you? Welcome. |
| 02:57:17.39 | Unknown | Bye, you guys. |
| 02:57:18.57 | Kristina Feller | Good, good. Thank you both for being here and appreciate you entering into the dialogue. I'm going to hand it over to you. to go ahead and take the floor and you see the comment timer there hopefully on the side of your screen as well. if we have any questions for you that's not going to count against your time so So please take it away and look forward to hearing from you. |
| 02:57:45.82 | Unknown | Absolutely, thank you. |
| 02:57:48.03 | Oshmita Pokhrel | by introducing myself. My name is Oshmita Pokhrel and I am representing Casey and Kipayar Harbor Marina on behalf of the Ballynhem Marine, the general contractors who will be redeveloping based in three and four. A lot of things have been covered by Tricia already, so it's going to be a lot of repetitive stuff. I apologize about that. Um, I'd like to start off by saying that it's been a long journey. We started the permitting process back in 2018 with the city and all the respective agencies. So I'd like to thank everybody who's been involved in the process, the city of South Salido, all the regulatory agencies, MIG, for all their help. on the CEQA. Like Tricia mentioned, So Krippian Harbor is located in the city of South Salido, approximately three miles away from the Golden Gate Bridge. And in this project, we are proposing to replace Basin 3 and 4 with new concrete docks. The existing dock has reached the end of its useful life and the, |
| 02:58:56.92 | Kevin McGowan | the |
| 02:58:58.34 | Oshmita Pokhrel | owner of the marina has selected concrete dock as an alternative because this dock lasts for 50 years, which in long-term will proved to be environmentally friendly. The project on redevelopment also consists of clean modern looking dogs, ADA compliant gangways like Trisha mentioned, class one fire system, portable water system, and electrical system. as well. a little overview on the project. consists of 101,845 square feet of total water coverage, including basin three and four right now. The new dock will be 99,359. So reducing almost 2,500 square feet over water coverage, which ultimately is more environmentally friendly just because there's less coverage on water. Similar with the piles, the existing piles are wood piles and we have 284 piles in basin three and four right now. We propose to install 211 new 14 to 16 inch concrete piles and that also reduces the pile count by 73. Mm. So during this three years of process, we've been through different agencies and all the regulatory agencies, including Army Corps, NOAA Fisheries, Department of Fish and Wildlife, Regional Water, and the city of South Toledo obviously has reviewed the project. Everybody has, everybody had set of comments and questions which has been addressed over the past three years. And now everybody, all the regulatory agencies involved in the project is kind of awaiting to review the CEQA documents and we are looking to move forward. with the project. maybe in the next year or so. Um, so we do, uh, Bellingham Marine is a general contractor. We build over water. all the time. So we make sure we comply with all the best management practices. When we do over water work, let that be minimizing the bait disturbance or let that be making sure that the water quality stays healthy. So these are, I'm not going to read, it's a list of 13 best management practices we comply with. So I'm not going to read it all and bore everybody. But we make sure we follow all the best management practices to maintain water quality and Make sure there is no disturbance to the bay. Mm-hmm. That's that's pretty much an overview of the project and including whatever Tricia had to say and I might be able to answer a few questions that you guys had for Tricia. Thank you. |
| 03:01:51.86 | Kristina Feller | Thank you, Shmida. Let's stop the clock. We've got 10.53 left on there. And Casey, did you wanna, add any more, we just want to enter maybe into a dialogue. |
| 03:02:03.98 | Casey | That was our presentation. Can take a swing at some of the questions you had from before now, or we could do that. whenever you would like |
| 03:02:12.45 | Kristina Feller | Well, yeah, if you have something in particular, um, regarding some of the questions. I guess with the presentation also, I'm going to open this up to the commission, Um, Are you, are you? Just replacing the the docks. So you have the same size slips for the same mix for different sized boats. |
| 03:02:40.16 | Casey | A little bit different, very similar, but a little bit different. You can see the average size slip only went up, I think, two feet. But we are adding the bigger boats because the market is going that direction. Our only vacancies are in our small slips, but as you can see, we're still keeping or 40 because economically if we could fill Thank you. the entire Marine up at 40, In my time, that was the last fight. |
| 03:03:02.09 | Patricia Stevens | Okay. |
| 03:03:02.42 | Casey | which demands is not there. So the mix will be very similar, but adding some bigger boats. |
| 03:03:04.64 | Kristina Feller | I don't know. |
| 03:03:09.33 | Kristina Feller | So any issue with the draft on any of those? Do you know dredging required? for the draft. |
| 03:03:18.09 | Casey | No, the drive's eight feet out. mean load. That's pretty standard throughout the Bay. You just can't have a 200 foot yacht come to us. Other than that, we're, yeah, okay. |
| 03:03:29.01 | Unknown | Okay. |
| 03:03:31.12 | Casey | Um, you |
| 03:03:32.01 | Unknown | I think. |
| 03:03:32.18 | Casey | Yeah, I'll start with some of the concerns that were brought forth. Sorry, I didn't get all of them, but I will try and go through the list. The first was the number of liveboards we have in that area is that |
| 03:03:32.22 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:03:47.14 | Casey | 10%, we have more in Basin II, which is that other third of our marina that would add up closer to that 10%. because those three are combined, it's not for parcels for our whole marina. So it'd be closer to 10%, but we've gone up to that 10% number and had problems with just people being too close to each other. So where they are now, that number we've been comfortable with for years. the tenants are happy and We just took that one on from Safe Harbor, that Sossley does program. It's been working out great. That's the reason we're at that We're probably around 8%. Um, And then as for the public dock out at the end of that one peninsula, The reason that is there, the main reason is there is the wave attenuator blocking the prevailing winds. protecting those basins on the other side of it. And It does have a gate on it. when we do have public overflow, we allow public parking on our main docks if you call ahead. Um, And that's just overflow. So when you do see boats out there, it's because the rest are taken up and we use them at least because the winds just Really? thrash boats on there. We do have a free public doc on our fuel doc that's You're allowed, that's where the dinghies come for two hours. That's why that dock is empty a lot of the time because it just gets, It's called wave attenuator. Um, the ADA ramp. three new ADA ransom plans, the one that is not if you're looking at the plans, there's one little block Farthest south that is black. That is not being touched and there's a ramp that is only used for KKMI, the boat. Um, Yeah. They were one of our tenants, they're the only ones using that ramp. All tenant slips will be available or access through one of those 388 ramps. The only one that won't be is the one that's existing, not being touched. Um, Sea level rise, the top, how high the docks are obviously floating. The top of the piles are around 18 feet. Yeah. We're if our sea rises 20 feet, we got bigger issues. We can drive piles higher when that comes. But we are. raising, I don't know if you've said you've Everyone's coming to our property. you're driving up six feet in your property we have stayed on top of that raising our parking lots are the existing gate houses right now are going to be raised we're in the process of with our engineers designing those and those will be permitted separately those will be above that 10 feet mean Mean low waterline. Um, Let's see. Pile driving, there's many different ways to drill. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in the mud. They might run about 150 feet of mud. As soon as you pull that out, the mud collapses. If you take one of those piles and drop it, that 80-foot piles, they'll sink in the mud. So you gotta... drive them down, hold them, and then they'll set. The pouring concrete, we've done it before, but for this volume, it doesn't make sense. We can look into it more. putting the sleeve in and pouring the concrete. They do work, but at this volume, it's just, where, You should see the size of this pile driver coming through because it just runs down the line instead of taking hours for each pile of these 200 piles going back in. Um... there for the pile driving, the construction season, there is a The season is around the pile driving season. conducive to the environmental impacts and the herring run. There is a Sorry, I don't know off the top of my head, but there is a month to month. |
| 03:07:52.04 | Unknown | I'm not. June to November. |
| 03:07:54.57 | Casey | June 3 and November is when you can drive piles. So that is our construction window. |
| 03:07:54.77 | Unknown | and, |
| 03:08:00.09 | Casey | that does mitigate those environmental impacts. um, Those are the ones I had written down. If there's any more, feel free to ask. |
| 03:08:11.31 | Kristina Feller | We appreciate you. taking notes there on some of our questions it definitely helps helps all this along let me let me open this up to the commissioners um Commissioner Luxenberg, do you want to start us off here? You're on mute there. |
| 03:08:30.52 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you, Casey. You answered most of them. The only one you didn't answer is the only one you didn't answer. is you have the staging area that's used by a lot of the people on the boats who are walking along when they're off the boat. Can that area be cleaned up and either landscaped or it looks somewhat unfinished now? Since you're going to damage it with your staging, can you put it back and clean it up and make it look a little better when you're done? |
| 03:08:59.31 | Casey | Yeah, absolutely. We do not, we have plans to return it to exactly what it looks like right now. in the future. If we were able to do something with it, Absolutely love to improve it, but Um, Yeah, I actually got married on that peninsula. So it's beautiful to us. |
| 03:09:19.01 | Unknown | you |
| 03:09:19.37 | Casey | but our plan is to be there for construction, get everything out, and return it exactly to the way it is now. I can't. We may. I can't promise that. |
| 03:09:30.05 | Unknown | We'd be using the staging area just to store materials and we'd use a fenced area so that the minimum |
| 03:09:38.03 | Oshmita Pokhrel | impacts to the land side, if any, on the staging area. |
| 03:09:43.37 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Well, if you could, I mean, I don't think it would be much to make it a little better. So if you can consider doing that as part of your process when you're coming with your permits, tell us later that that would be appreciated. Okay. |
| 03:10:00.70 | Jeffery Luxenberg | That's all I have, Chair Feller. Thank you. |
| 03:10:00.80 | Kristina Feller | So that's all I do. Actually, there was, I think one question that you had asked before, Commissioner Luxenberg, that maybe I didn't hear the answer to, and that is how are when you're displacing all of these yachts where where are you putting them |
| 03:10:16.07 | Casey | Yeah, sorry, I forgot about that one. Months before we start the project, we stopped taking on new tenants. We need about 10% vacancy. We do this for the same with dredging every eight years. We need about that 10%. They can see to move boats. We have a full time staff that that's what we do. move the boats that will work on 10 to 15 empty slips at a time, move those boats into the vacant slips. put them back in, move the next 15 boats, Yeah. get up early in the morning to do that. So that's, we need about 10% vacancy to move those boats around. |
| 03:10:50.36 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:10:50.38 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Thank you. Also, the projects happening in phases, Basin 3 is going to happen in three or four different phases. So boats will be moved out of those phases as required. |
| 03:11:02.81 | Kristina Feller | So what's your total duration? project duration. |
| 03:11:06.56 | Oshmita Pokhrel | So we plan to, it's permit dependent obviously, but we plan to, if things work out and if we have permits in hand, we plan to do basin three June through November of 2022 and based in four. Uh, maybe the following year. |
| 03:11:23.69 | Lucinda Eubanks | Thank you. |
| 03:11:23.70 | Kristina Feller | I got it. |
| 03:11:24.43 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Thank you. |
| 03:11:24.62 | Kristina Feller | you |
| 03:11:24.70 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:11:26.17 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Commissioner Junius. |
| 03:11:29.22 | Andrew Junius | One real quick question. Thank you, Chair Feller. Um, You mentioned that the current docs are at the end of their useful life. Is there any, I assume that Thank you. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. |
| 03:11:46.70 | Casey | That's correct. Our basin two, actually Bellingham, who used me to work for did our basin too. We had old decaying wood docks from right after World War II and Bellingham came in and the install. The transitions are very easy, very safe. We do the base of concrete first and wood just supplemented. Stepping from wood to concrete or vice versa. |
| 03:12:10.70 | Andrew Junius | But the current conditions of the docs are still serviceable, usable to accommodate your construction schedule. |
| 03:12:16.34 | Casey | Oh, yes. |
| 03:12:19.48 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. |
| 03:12:19.81 | Casey | But I'm sure you've all seen these storms that have been coming out of the north. |
| 03:12:19.83 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. |
| 03:12:24.08 | Casey | that. there just seemed to be getting worse and worse and we had a $100,000 worth of damage of those docks. just last year, so. This will help me to get that as well. |
| 03:12:36.64 | Kristina Feller | Right. Good questions, Commissioner Saad, |
| 03:12:44.33 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you, Chair Feller. I was wondering about the reflective gangways, if there was a reason that those were chosen. |
| 03:12:53.31 | Casey | I'm sorry I'm not realizing where that is written down. |
| 03:12:56.52 | Nastassya Saad | Yeah. Let me look. Can I add? |
| 03:12:58.00 | Casey | Bye. |
| 03:12:58.02 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:12:58.04 | Casey | Yeah. Thank you. |
| 03:12:59.91 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Can I add to that? So the new gangrions are going to be made of aluminum and they're gray in color. And maybe it just got reiterated just because it's aluminum and it's gray in color. It got reiterated as reflective material. And I think that's what they mean. |
| 03:13:01.83 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:13:01.92 | Nastassya Saad | Thank you. |
| 03:13:01.97 | Unknown | You should. |
| 03:13:18.74 | Oshmita Pokhrel | That's the design of the gangway we're planning to install in Basin 3 and 4. I don't know if they want to call aluminum as a reflective material. but it's if you let me point up point you out to a page in the report if you have that |
| 03:13:34.64 | Nastassya Saad | Yeah. |
| 03:13:35.06 | Oshmita Pokhrel | I... It's on page. 225 where we Oh, that's the material list I provided. To the MIG team, it mentions the gangways to be made of aluminum and it's of color gray. Yeah. |
| 03:13:52.73 | Casey | That's pretty standard throughout the US. |
| 03:13:54.26 | Oshmita Pokhrel | That's correct. |
| 03:13:55.06 | Nastassya Saad | Okay, maybe that is the issue. Cause I saw the word reflective and I was just a little concerned there. Okay, and then, on page five of the negative declaration was the question around if like there was to be debris that floats away, that it would be picked up at its... earliest convenience by divers. And I just don't know if you have any experience there. Is that somebody that's on staff or available or hire for the construction period and on call. |
| 03:14:31.84 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Thank you. |
| 03:14:31.86 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:14:32.03 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Bye. |
| 03:14:32.08 | Unknown | Bye. |
| 03:14:32.11 | Oshmita Pokhrel | No. |
| 03:14:32.45 | Unknown | I've been. |
| 03:14:32.72 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Our best management practices that I showed in my PPT kind of that as well. So obviously putting a clear bay and maintaining water quality is one of our higher priorities when we work over water. So all our crew is well trained to pick any debris lying around when the construction happens and make sure that the water quality remains. |
| 03:14:52.57 | Nastassya Saad | Yeah. |
| 03:14:52.79 | Kevin McGowan | . |
| 03:14:57.16 | Oshmita Pokhrel | safe and sound. |
| 03:14:59.33 | Nastassya Saad | Okay, I think it's only specific because it mentioned a diver and I couldn't quite comprehend if somebody is is, Oh, yeah. |
| 03:15:06.64 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Oh yeah, so our crew members who installed the docks, because we |
| 03:15:08.34 | Nastassya Saad | Yeah. |
| 03:15:11.67 | Nastassya Saad | that experience. |
| 03:15:12.33 | Oshmita Pokhrel | I have that experience. |
| 03:15:14.18 | Nastassya Saad | Okay. So that's them. Okay. |
| 03:15:15.50 | Oshmita Pokhrel | THE END OF THE END OF THE |
| 03:15:16.26 | Nastassya Saad | Um, Actually, I think those are my only two. The rest of them had been answered by you guys earlier. Thank you, Chair Feller. |
| 03:15:24.51 | Kristina Feller | Sure, I think regarding that question on the debris, I mean, this is just a study session here, of course. I think as this moves forward in the process, we would probably want to get better information about the specifics on that. you know, just to kind of help steer you forward as well as we would really want to understand that. that are Um, vice chair graph, do you have questions for the applicant? |
| 03:15:53.52 | Richard Graef | No, I don't have any questions. And looking through all the documentation, there's plenty of it. Clearly, it's been addressed and I think frankly, that the project's in good hands. So I look forward to... seeing it move along. |
| 03:16:18.56 | Kristina Feller | Definitely and appreciate. you know, Casey and your, family, your team always I'm not sure. keeping everything ship shape. But I actually do have a couple more questions and things just to kind of bounce around and talk about here. because we haven't really talked about Um, you know, public access to the waterfront which is a Sausalito issue, not necessarily you know, your issue solely, but I'd like to, you know, put that out on the table. something that we've struggled with a lot as a city even just somebody wanted to like throw a kayak in the water and paddle away the ability to do that. And I'd like to know if there are any thoughts or plans or opportunities that you see on your property to provide that. And then, you know, other things that we will be looking for going forward, part of this study session isn't just to talk about what we see today, but what we might be looking for in the future as you continue to develop the design and so on and help give you meaningful input and guide that process for success at the end So things like lighting and any kind of, solar opportunities or any kind of innovation from that standpoint, we are always, um, very keen to understand and grapple with and understand to make sure that we are keeping a light footprint on the environment while still providing a service that is obviously needed in the seaside town like Sausalito. So maybe you can address some of those things. |
| 03:18:03.03 | Casey | Absolutely. Well, we just worked with American Solar. They're a soft-seedal company. We did solar for a on all of our eight buildings so That's one step we move forward and that doesn't cover everything, but it takes a big chunk out of our electricity bill. I'm, As for on the docks, it's hard because we can't have covered slips. We'd love to, but it's just not really about ability to sailboats. At a lake it works. There are lakes that are doing covered slope with solar, but We can't. Bellingham's done a great job with design and lighting for the docks to make him safer to walk on. They look fantastic. Um, it'll be, um, they handle storms better. or just This increase about our Um, Yeah, all year round. And then as for public access, we've always struggled with that. We know it's also does the same. There's nowhere to go. The city has tried, but they I haven't really done anything much for it. Yeah. public launch, which is where we have to tell people to go, our insurance does not like us to have Even the dock that we have there, our insurance would be... has been trying to get us to do it, but we're saying we need it for public access. So that's been a real struggle for us is the price of insurance to have people coming on and off, but we do allow that two hour |
| 03:19:19.11 | Maggie Cox | Thank you. |
| 03:19:26.21 | Casey | Um, access, which has been sufficient to what we've seen. We rarely turn people away. Launching kayaks, that's another issue, Again, that's one of the most dangerous things you can do. We see people slip and fall all the time on the public ramp. |
| 03:19:43.51 | Unknown | Yeah. |
| 03:19:44.03 | Casey | So we can look into that for improvements, but that's kind of where we've stood the past few years. |
| 03:19:51.62 | Kristina Feller | Yeah, I certainly appreciate and understand the comments back. still respectfully gonna try to push for as much public access as we can get that is actually not just labeled public access on a plan, but actually is functioning as public access. And I'm sure you understand that. I understand. |
| 03:20:13.60 | Casey | Yeah. |
| 03:20:14.61 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. |
| 03:20:15.17 | Casey | Thank you. Sassou has been doing a great job with transient slips out in the bay. And that's RBRA. they seem to be doing a better job as well. Once that gets handled, this won't be an issue anymore as well. It will do. So. |
| 03:20:32.50 | Kristina Feller | And then the other thing that I'd love for you guys to comment on in your design and as it's evolving |
| 03:20:33.75 | Casey | Thank you. |
| 03:20:40.24 | Kristina Feller | is also emergency services and access and even Coast Guard pulling someone out of the water ambulance and everything related to emergency services. Can you comment on that? Yes. |
| 03:20:55.63 | Casey | Yes. |
| 03:20:56.21 | Kristina Feller | and your design a little bit? |
| 03:20:58.23 | Casey | We have a great relationship with Coast Guard, fire, police. I mean, there was that boat on fire two weeks ago when they came to us. So they have access to all our docs. They launch and fuel up at our facilities. They have access to everything that we do. So we do everything we can to facilitate them and help them out. If they're pulling by our water, they come to us. Our new design they'll have a key to it, but it won't really affect what they do because they have the launch ramp and our basin two right there, which is where they go if they need to. |
| 03:21:32.72 | Unknown | So, |
| 03:21:32.86 | Casey | So the other two that I can't think of any improvements that there would be, but if they would ask for them, uh, Love to help them. |
| 03:21:41.74 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. If you have, I don't know if you have socialized design and your ideas about it with them and given them an opportunity to weigh in on it, It's just a question I have and I'm not, You know, I'd be very interested in that. It's really something that I know the city is looking at citywide. particularly as you know, uh, water-based housing might be increasing. Um, you know the density of our city even if it's not water based is going to be increasing so You know, these are all issues that everyone has to do their part to stay on top of and and obviously you know your harbor is a fairly significant um element here in Sausalito. and has always been very well equipped And even in access during the sequencing of your execution of your design and the construction of it, I just want to make sure that you know all stakeholders or interested parties have had that opportunity and that's something that this commission as we move forward together we'll be looking for. So again, in an effort to give as much meaningful input now to help Um, help help you lay out you know next steps um we will we'll be asking for that in the future to see Um, how you've addressed that. |
| 03:23:20.84 | Kristina Feller | Okay. Um, Let's see. And as it relates to |
| 03:23:24.49 | Kevin McGowan | as we can. |
| 03:23:28.27 | Kristina Feller | the NegDec. What are your thoughts about it? Have you, I mean, I'm sure you've commented on it quite heavily, but are there any issues in there or anything that we've discussed here that gives you pause or gives you Um, ideas for a different direction, just Any input would be great. |
| 03:23:53.95 | Casey | Is that to me? Sorry, I missed the first part of that question. |
| 03:23:56.30 | Kristina Feller | Yeah, I mean, you know, particularly with sea level rise and subsiding, I mean, I know your harbor has always, you know, been very proactive in terms of, building it up, you'll be the last to be impacted probably, at least down on the waterfront. |
| 03:24:07.06 | Patricia Stevens | I'm not. |
| 03:24:09.83 | Kristina Feller | But I mean, this is a pretty significant issue and, and I don't know if you've modeled this new design with Bay Wave or NOAA or anybody Again, that is something that we will be looking for. |
| 03:24:25.61 | Unknown | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:24:26.43 | Kristina Feller | I'm very interested in because you know, the new published numbers by pretty much every federal agency are alarming. You know, I'm not a scientist, but they are very alarming to me. they stand to have great impacts to the entire Bay Area and not just Sausalito. So it'd be very interesting to understand that. Um, And if you and we're going to plan on engaging with Bay Wave here in the county. That would be important to know. Amen. We, you know, A couple of us had some questions about the pile options. And you know, if you are going to try to, if you're removing piles, if you're trying to use that same sort of pile area for new piles, at all. |
| 03:25:24.60 | Casey | No. |
| 03:25:26.48 | Kristina Feller | So can you talk about that? about the design and I would like you to look into different pile options to ensure that |
| 03:25:33.41 | Lucinda Eubanks | I'll see you next time. Bye. |
| 03:25:33.68 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:25:35.94 | Kristina Feller | looking at the best most environmentally friendly options. |
| 03:25:40.94 | Unknown | We have a... |
| 03:25:42.03 | Oshmita Pokhrel | I can add on this a little bit. We have looked into different power driving options for all of the projects that we do. diesel impact has been able to work at least for concrete piles the best and I know it's been concerned it's the noise has been a concern not just to the city of South Salido but to other agencies as well but Since it's concrete pile and considering the length of the pile and the amount of embedment it goes into the bay, the method we're proposing has seemed to work the best in the past. But if you guys have any options, we are willing to explore. and |
| 03:26:23.02 | Kristina Feller | Well, that's what we're asking you for. |
| 03:26:24.49 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Mm-hmm. |
| 03:26:24.86 | Unknown | Thank you. |
| 03:26:25.12 | Kristina Feller | And I understand concrete files as an engineer myself, but |
| 03:26:29.18 | Unknown | There are other options. |
| 03:26:29.62 | Kristina Feller | There are other options and, um, And there, and you know, if it's a best option for you from a cost perspective, then that's one consideration. But if it's the best option, it's not the best option from an environmental, we just, we need to understand and have a balance here in terms of what is the best. And as I'm sure you know, I mean, you don't have to use the same pile options everywhere in the design. You can use different types in different areas. So. just really want to you know, dive into the detail of that and sort of the rationale to make sure that, um, Again, this is a successful project, but we don't want to just say, oh, okay, it's just a pile is a pile. A pile is not a pile. We want to make sure we're doing the right thing here. |
| 03:27:21.50 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Absolutely. |
| 03:27:24.31 | Kristina Feller | Okay. So any thoughts about that? Will you look into that? |
| 03:27:31.89 | Unknown | Yes, absolutely. |
| 03:27:33.04 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Can we, I mean, I'd like to have our power driving manager. I tried to get him on the call today, but he is, in an ICU sick today. them on the call when we do a round two of this meeting and this meeting and we can absolutely dive deep into the why we think that the method we proposing would work the best. Also look into more options. We could definitely explore that part. |
| 03:28:02.30 | Kristina Feller | Yeah, sorry to hear about your expert, But yeah, I mean, again, this is just a study session. So there's no action by this commission tonight. Uh-huh. and you know certainly recognize this is part part of a process and you've been working on this a long time but These kinds of details really do do matter. Um, And so we would appreciate that greatly when you're able to have your team together. That would be great. Any other questions? anybody? this time no Um, Casey do you have any more questions for us or you want to ask us more questions about process or or talk about more details or anything that we, You have plenty of time left, so the time is yours to use as you wish. |
| 03:28:53.53 | Casey | Now it sounds like we're on the right track. Tricia is going to track down, we'll work with her to track down some of those agencies, BayWave and the Sea Level Rise consultants. More than that, it's more what you guys need from us, so we're going to keep moving forward and Bye. |
| 03:29:10.46 | Kristina Feller | Okay. |
| 03:29:10.63 | Casey | Thank you. start building on Monday. |
| 03:29:15.77 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Ha ha ha. Okay, Tricia, we can, we'll look, through you for you to work with director whalen maybe with a one-way communication initially to the commission on who you've circulated this MND to And for the record here, I would. would strongly urge and recommend that you extend this initial comment period because it doesn't sound like some of the most important people who needed to get this have gotten this yet. and so we can work on that together. I'm happy to do what I can, as I'm sure the other commissioners are, I'm not sure. And when we receive that list from you, we will individually respond back and not reply all and i'm sure there'll be directions in those emails so we don't impact brown act and all that business so MS BOSTON. We will leave it in your hands with Director Whelan |
| 03:30:18.25 | Kristina Feller | Okay. |
| 03:30:18.68 | Patricia Stevens | Will do. |
| 03:30:19.17 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. Okay. Um, Well, if no other comments or questions at this time, I want to thank Thank you for for, um, meeting with us and doing this study session and really appreciate your time and attention to the detail and I hope we've been helpful in terms of what we'll be looking for in the future. |
| 03:30:44.59 | Oshmita Pokhrel | Absolutely. Thank you, everybody. Thanks for your time. |
| 03:30:48.18 | Kristina Feller | Thank you very much. Bye. |
| 03:30:51.17 | Director Whelan | Chair Feller, just for the record, it doesn't look like we have any members of the public that aren't on the applicant team or the city contract team. So just for the record, just want to acknowledge that um, or opening up the public comment period, but closing it because we don't have any in the public. |
| 03:31:06.35 | Kristina Feller | Sure. At this time, I will open public comments. Anyone who'd like to make comment can raise their hand in the Zoom application or press star nine on their phones. Um, to make comments. At this time, I do not see any hands, so I will close public comment. and hand it to you, Director Whalen. |
| 03:31:29.29 | Director Whelan | Excellent. So I think we can move on to our next item on this agenda, which is a new business item for the creation of an appointment to a subcommittee of the planning commission to assist with the objective design and development steers. And we talked a little bit about this at our last planning commission meeting when we received the excellent, overview from the attorney Wagner on the housing accountability act. I believe I'll leave this one to you, Chair Ferler. |
| 03:31:55.50 | Kristina Feller | Yes, yes, thank you very much. And thank you for getting this on our agenda for this meeting. I thought the presentation that Mary did at our last meeting was was excellent and certainly put a sense of urgency I believe in all of us. And so at this time, I would like to, request and appoint Commissioner Junius to a subcommittee of this commission specifically to assist with the objective design and development standards here. And you and I will be working together on this and coordinate through and I think that's a great question. and we can report back to this commission for any items that we need to agendize or take action on. in the future. But I think we have a, this is a rather urgent and priority item for this commission to come back and make recommendations. promotion here and also recommendations to our city council |
| 03:33:02.67 | Andrew Junius | Sounds good. |
| 03:33:03.81 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you for agreeing to that. |
| 03:33:07.08 | Andrew Junius | No problem. Good. I'm very familiar with the HAA. |
| 03:33:08.83 | Kristina Feller | Very familiar. Yes, I figured you would be. Wonderful. I appreciate you doing that. Great. That solves that 7a here. Should we move on to item eight? |
| 03:33:23.16 | Director Whelan | Thank you. |
| 03:33:23.90 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 03:33:24.49 | Director Whelan | That'd be great. I can kick that off if you don't mind, Chair Feller. I just wanted to mention a couple of items that will be on the council's agenda next week that are of interest to the planning commission. The first is an item regarding the selection of the consultant to work with the city on the update of our housing element So that is going on for June 8th, the Proposal Review Committee interviewed two um consultants who provided proposals and is recommending one of them to a council and that agenda will come out tomorrow. And then we also have an agenda item on the council meeting regarding the machine shop in Sausalito. And that will be an introduction item regarding the machine shop and the fact that Um, THE The Veterans Affairs has decided to divest itself of the machine shop and the general services administration is taking it over and is surplusing the property. And so the GSA will be at the council meeting to talk about the process. with the council and the community. Then I also wanted to update you. I think I mentioned at the last meeting that on the, June 8th. Agenda for the council, the council would be discussing the COVID-19 permits and parklets. It's my understanding that that will be now in a community workshop forum. And I don't have the date right now for you, but I will make sure that the Planning Commission and the public knows about that date for the workshop. |
| 03:35:00.68 | Kristina Feller | Great, thank you. and I'm going to thank Director Whelan for those updates. I would first like to say if you know anyone here on the commission uh is available to listen to anything regarding the machine shop I think it would be good homework because that may very likely come to this commission it'd be great to have that background information on it, of course, those are all recorded and you can listen to that another time, but just, just putting that out there that likely that will maybe eventually find its way to the Planning Commission. Um, Regarding parklets, I'm not sure I fully understand. we had We have a Vice Chair Graff and I have a small little task force, not even a subcommittee just to benchmark Parklifts and what other jurisdictions are doing. And so is the city council not taking any action on parklets at this time that they are punting it to a community workshop forum to discuss it or Is there any action that they're taking regarding parklets. |
| 03:36:18.24 | Director Whelan | My understanding is that the first stop will be a community workshop forum. and then we'll bring it to the council for action. if there are action items to be taken. |
| 03:36:33.27 | Kristina Feller | Okay. So nothing on their agenda on the A. |
| 03:36:37.29 | Director Whelan | That's my aim. my understanding. |
| 03:36:38.81 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 03:36:38.83 | Director Whelan | Thank you. |
| 03:36:38.84 | Kristina Feller | you Yeah. Okay, great. |
| 03:36:41.97 | Director Whelan | I'm so sorry. I did want to also mention two other items. We I am happy to announce that we have a new city manager who will be starting on Monday, June 7th. And then I also wanted to let you know, I don't think I was able to at your last Planning Commission meeting, but we did, unfortunately, lose Christy Usher, who's our senior planner, or who was our senior planner with the city. So we're actively recruiting for that position right now. And I'm trying very hard to fill that position temporarily. And so I understand that there's a lot of frustration with some of her projects and getting those reassigned But I wanted everyone to know that I am trying very hard to get that filled so that we can get right back on track continue the work that we do. |
| 03:37:30.63 | Kristina Feller | Well, I mean, Director Whelan, I think losing Chrissy was a huge loss for all of us. I thought she did some really excellent work. And to your point I would ask anybody here on the Commission that if you heard of anyone or know anyone or would put out the word that we are looking to hire work your network and certainly defer them, any potential candidate to Director Whalen. I'm sure she will appreciate any help. as it's hard right now to find such expertise in the, in the market. So, um, We will be here. |
| 03:38:03.71 | Nastassya Saad | Dr. Peller may ask a question. Is there like a LinkedIn, that you can share around that maybe we can also post or share. |
| 03:38:14.05 | Director Whelan | Sure. Yeah, let me circulate what we have out there. |
| 03:38:15.96 | Nastassya Saad | Sure. |
| 03:38:15.99 | Director Whelan | Sure. |
| 03:38:16.67 | Nastassya Saad | Be happy to do that. |
| 03:38:18.54 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Question. And through the chair to Willie, have you contacted UC Berkeley, the planning school there, they do send out, stuff to a whole huge mail list. I don't know if you've contacted them, but if you've If you haven't, you might want to. |
| 03:38:35.48 | Director Whelan | Yeah, it's a good idea too. And I think our HR manager did reach out to them, but also a good reminder to keep that in our resources. |
| 03:38:42.60 | Unknown | I'm not. |
| 03:38:43.87 | Director Whelan | Also, Denise, to double check, I think we were going to reach out to the Cal Poly for planning too. So I need to make sure we did that. Good, thanks for a reminder. |
| 03:38:53.96 | Kristina Feller | Great. Good ideas. Let's get that position filled. Anybody else have anything to share from communications? Yes, Commissioner Saad. |
| 03:39:06.28 | Nastassya Saad | I just wanted to say that I'm, um, I'm still interviewing this ombudsman role. I've spoken to a few more people. I will say nothing is earth shattering. I find the EDAC report to be accumulation of what I've, heard from everyone I've spoken to, but I do have some more conversations this week and one more next week. So I'll send a note to Mayor Hoffman just to keep her in the loop and updated, but I just wanted to round it out with a few more community members because I've spoken to some staff, of course, director Whelan has been immensely helpful, but just talk to a few different members of the community to see if there's any different perspective there. So also that no, probably tomorrow, but it's wants to give you an update there that that's still continuing in the background. |
| 03:39:57.07 | Kristina Feller | Thank you and thank you for doing all that work. I know it's not easy. And it's hard to get. |
| 03:40:02.19 | Nastassya Saad | I didn't have a job, but yeah, no, it's been really interesting. So hopefully, um, |
| 03:40:03.88 | Kristina Feller | I know. |
| 03:40:06.76 | Nastassya Saad | Yeah. |
| 03:40:06.79 | Kristina Feller | Yeah. Um, it's probably time you me and Mayor Hoffman sort of get get on a call together just to round some of this out and talk next steps for that So let's do that separately. |
| 03:40:20.33 | Nastassya Saad | Okay. Sure. |
| 03:40:21.78 | Kristina Feller | Um, |
| 03:40:22.56 | Nastassya Saad | Sounds good. |
| 03:40:23.23 | Kristina Feller | that. regarding the housing element, Commissioner Luxenberg, I think, you know, Director Whalen has has the update so far, and that is, the motion will be in front of the city council to appoint based on the recommendation. But if you have anything to add to that, since you are on that subcommittee, |
| 03:40:44.16 | Jeffery Luxenberg | No, I mean, I think if you worked out a little with the sub-consultant, Is there any further work on numbers and on that and trying to get that done? |
| 03:40:52.88 | Kevin McGowan | It was about |
| 03:41:03.29 | Mary Wagner | sorry i'm jumping on i'm jumping on here um commissioner luxembourg to make sure we don't run afoul of the brown x since this isn't actually on your agenda it's just kind of an update so i think lily can work with the working group members to respond to that question and then you'll also have access to the staff report that's going to the the council next week |
| 03:41:09.26 | Kevin McGowan | as an act. |
| 03:41:12.61 | Unknown | can work |
| 03:41:22.01 | Mary Wagner | Thank you. |
| 03:41:22.02 | Jeffery Luxenberg | I appreciate that. Thank you. |
| 03:41:24.81 | Kristina Feller | Yeah, these are just one-way communications. Anybody else have anything, any other communications to add? Announcements, anything? All right. Well with that I will entertain a motion for adjournment everyone in favor All right. |
| 03:41:43.64 | Lucinda Eubanks | All right. Thank you. |
| 03:41:44.75 | Kristina Feller | Right. Thank you, everybody. Have a great evening. Appreciate all your hard work. take care and welcome again thank you yes welcome Welcome. |
| 03:41:54.32 | Andrew Junius | Thank you so much. It was a fun evening. I enjoyed every minute of it. Uh, Look forward to working with you guys for the next three years. |
| 03:41:59.69 | Kristina Feller | Thank you. |
| 03:41:59.70 | Lucinda Eubanks | Right. Thank you, Lily. All right. Good evening everyone. |
| 03:42:03.75 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you. THE END OF THE END OF THE Thank you. |
| 03:42:05.32 | Unknown | Thank you. you |
| 03:42:05.65 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you. |
| 03:42:05.73 | Lucinda Eubanks | I was not good. |
| 03:42:06.56 | Jeffery Luxenberg | Thank you. |
Maggie Cox — Against: Echoed concerns about hillside stability and urged the Commission to wait until all issues are fully considered, referencing long-standing efforts to stabilize the area. ▶ 📄
Lucinda Eubanks — Against: Argued that the applicants should pay their share of the retaining wall costs and sign a road maintenance agreement before approval. Gave her remaining time to Steven Woodside. ▶ 📄
Steven Woodside — Against: Stated that the applicants have not contributed to the wall construction costs and that meaningful agreement with a fair budget is needed. Referenced California Civil Code on shared easement maintenance responsibilities. ▶ 📄