Okay, we're good.

Alright, good evening, everyone.

Welcome to tonight's uh Planning Commission meeting for the City of Belmont.

Today is Tuesday, December 16th.

It is 701, and we're gonna get going.

I will start with some instructions on how to participate and comment uh for tonight's meeting.

Um of course this is uh this meeting is being broadcast live on Comcast Cable 27.

Uh it is also streamed live uh via the city's website at Belmont.gov and of course it's available um over Zoom and one can access the meeting via Zoom by following the instructions on the agenda.

Uh with regard to public comment, um uh a member of the public can comment in chambers by submitting a speaker slip to our clerk.

You'll then have two minutes uh to comment, uh actually three minutes to comment by stepping up to the lectern.

Um one can also comment um via Zoom by again following the instructions in the agenda and uh speakers will have three minutes also to comment uh over Zoom and finally um uh public comment can be submitted via our C dev at Belmont.gov email address so long as the comment is received by 4 p.m.

Uh the day of the meeting.

So those are the the instructions uh for participation, and we'll next turn to a roll call.

Please, Adam Clerk.

All right, roll call.

Um Commissioner Adam Kevich here.

Chair Coolidge here.

Twig?

Yeah, Jadala?

Here.

Perfect.

And uh tonight we have absent is Commissioner Majeski and Commissioner Kramer.

Great, thank you.

We do have a quorum, so we can move forward.

Uh item two is next, the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please rise and we'll pledge the flag, which is here.

Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Great, thank you, everyone.

Uh next is item three, which is our community forum.

Uh, this portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address uh the body on any matter not on the agenda within our purview.

Uh and again, um uh public comment is limited to three minutes per speaker.

We'll turn first to uh chambers and see if anyone in chambers uh would like to make a public comment.

Um public uh comment slips for in-house.

Great.

How about uh over Zoom?

Um no raise hands on Zoom.

And I'll see if there's any comments that were submitted for this item three before 4 p.m.

today.

There were no items uh submitted before 4 p.m.

today for this portion of the agenda.

Thank you.

Okay, that concludes our community forum portion of the agenda.

Thank you.

Next is item four, which is uh commissioner announcements and agenda amendments.

I'll turn first to see if there's any uh announcements from uh my colleagues up on the dais.

No, no.

Nope.

Uh any announcements from staff or agenda amendments for us to consider.

None from staff, Chair Coolidge.

Great, thank you so much.

Uh now uh on to item five, which is our consent business.

Um there's one item uh it's item 5A, which is the approval of meeting minutes for the November 4th 2025 minutes.

And I'll see first there's any comments, questions, or corrections regarding uh the minutes.

No, not no comment.

Okay.

So uh I will now entertain a motion uh for approval of uh item 5A.

I will put forward the motion to approve the minutes for the November 4th meeting 2025.

Great.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Take a vote.

Alright, Commissioner Adam Kavich.

Aye.

Chair Coolidge?

Aye.

Uh Twig?

Aye, Jadala?

Aye.

Okay, motion passes four-zero for um the minutes as presented for November 4th, 2025.

Great, thank you so much, Madam Clerk.

Uh, next is item six, which is our study session.

We have no uh matters under this item.

We'll move on to our public hearings.

We have one item uh under uh public hearings, it's item 7a.

It is a single family design review for 2028 uh Lion Avenue.

And before turning it over to staff, I'll see if anyone any of my colleagues have um any ex-party communications uh recusals or anything else to announce regarding this matter.

Um just a site visit, nothing to report.

I'll report only that uh the owner and uh owner's daughter and my daughter played softball together for two years.

Uh so uh beyond that, nothing further to report.

Uh just a site visit.

Great, thank you.

Okay, turn to staff for a presentation.

Hi, Commissioners, and I hope you're having a good end of the year.

This is for 2028 Lion Avenue.

For the proposal, there would be a grand total of 893 square feet of addition, sixty-five of which will be for a ground floor minor expansion, and the majority being 828 square feet for the creation of our new upper story.

The lot summary for this location is that the lot size is 4,016 square feet with a slope of 14%, which gives you a permitted floor area ratio of 0.516.

The max gross floor area noted will be 2,072 square feet.

However, the proposed is only 2,061.

The home size existing is 1,168.

Again, proposed of 2,061 and the noted max of 2072.

For the findings of the design review, the addition should be well designed, articulated, and consistent.

Public views should not be impacted, and the addition should remain compliant with our residential design guidelines and criteria.

For the site plan, the proposed setbacks are for the front of 20 feet, the right side of six, the left side being five feet six inches, and the rear being 20 feet and one inches.

The required setbacks for this location are the front being 15, sides being six and a rear of 15.

The permission for the left side yard of 5 feet 6 inches is permitted by section 9 for legal nonconforming walls, and you're able to extend said wall so long as you're not further exacerbating the legal nonconformity.

And right now they're doing so at the noted uh staircase area of an existing wall.

Uh for the existing front elevation, you can see it's already a single story just stepped up with the noted garage and guardrails with the decks.

And then you're now seeing the uh new uh second story as well as a little slight portions of the redesign of the front entryways with the noted daylight planes and the height being in our noted areas for the rear elevation, it's again just a single uh timber area for the single story uh with sliding doors, but then getting more articulated with a new redesign doors, more windows.

You can see that portions of the upper story are um set back from the um existing base of the ground floor uh to add further articulation.

The left elevations for the existing, you can again see that existing deck and how um the articulation for the second story occurs with portions of it jutting forward and front uh forward uh towards us as well as setting back for a good portions of the areas that are in the front area or front elevations and for the right elevation again once more has a similar concept where you can again see the um jutted portions of the second story uh pushing further into the center massing.

For the color and materials board, um you can see uh the created image to the left, um, but it will be for a standing seam metal roof, uh gray and navy blue uh cement board sidings with uh black framed window uh clear glasses.

In conclusion, staff recommends for approval.

Great.

Thank you, Planner Ruiz.

I'll ask the owner applicant if they would like to submit comment.

It's not required, but you're certainly welcome to do so.

Just um good evening.

Uh thanks for the opportunity to um review uh our project.

And uh just as long time residents, excited to be able to uh take this step forward to make a little more space for our family of four, and uh looking forward to any comments you might have.

Great.

Thank you so much.

Good transition to see uh before putting the public hearing portion if we um have any uh questions from uh Dais.

I I would like a little more clarification on the uh the five foot six exemption.

Sure, for section nine point, it's in the staff report, but section nine point six point three B.

Um single family residences are permitted to have additions with legal nonconforming walls, so long as they are extending only the legal nonconforming wall, and it's not going to exacerbate the current setback.

So in this case, it's five feet six inches, and so long as it maintains the five feet six inches for the addition, um, and continues that all, in this case it's going up for the second story, it would be permitted.

Okay, thank you.

Great, thank you for that clarification.

No questions.

Um, yeah, I had a question uh not so much about about this project, but um about sort of the design condition about the articulation.

Um is that something like we just note when we see it?

Like this project looks like well balanced.

I can see the articulation, as you said, sort of setback, it's not just a uniform wall.

But is that just a uh qualitative thing, or or do our standards actually say like what percent or the number of feet?

Sure.

So for residential design guidelines, you're able to implement three standards.

Prescribed articulation is one of them.

Um this one used a mix of prescribed articulation, which I believe was in the further graphics of the plan set.

Um, for front elevations, the it would be 50%.

Um for if you're trying to use the a criteria, side elevations would be 30% in this case, and rear elevations would also be 30%.

Okay.

But that said, he this applicant used both daylight plan as well as a prescribed articulation to address the residential design guidelines and criteria.

Okay, thanks.

Yeah, because um I know that the staff checks for consistency and you always inform us when something meets the guidelines, but we've never discussed like the numbers before.

So thank you.

Appreciate the education.

That's a good question.

Good clarification for the record.

Um appreciate that, and I have no further questions.

So we'll now open it up to public comment, starting with uh anyone chambers.

I see no one present in chambers aside from the applicant.

Um, and so we'll see now if anyone on Zoom would like to comment on this item 7a.

Um no uh raised hands on Zoom.

And I'll ask uh Director Ramello if we received any written comments on the C dev um account uh before 4 p.m.

today regarding this matter.

We have not received any comments before 4 p.m.

for this agenda item.

Thank you.

Okay.

Well that then concludes um the public comment portion, and we'll turn now to commissioner deliberation.

Would anyone like to start?

I'll start.

I really like this project.

Um does it's I think it's got a lot going for it.

I think it's a good example of how you can uh really good design can unlock the existing homes we have here in Belmont and make them more appropriate and sort of uh fit for use.

So that's something that we need to look at.

We have how we evolve our existing homes.

I really like that the neighborhood outreach was very thorough and a lot of positive support.

You kind of got gone over and above to engage your neighbors, which was always gonna be smoother for a project, and I think it's really nice to see.

Um I really liked that even though you have a sort of you're allowed to do this non-conforming five, six setback on the side yard that you haven't chosen to do that all along, but isn't instead it's like a pop-out in the side yard, which again is quite considerate.

They decided to use that as sort of a to give further articulation to the staircall on the side yard, which again they didn't have that's not something they had to do, but chosen to do that, and I think that really speaks to how they're working with their neighbors.

And then one like sort of minor point that I really liked about this packet was that every image shows their neighbors in it, and it's something we actually rarely see.

Like quite often we see a standalone, the plan or the even the site plan and the CGIs, and they have they're just shown kind of sitting on an empty, yeah, like they're floating.

Yeah, and the number of times we see that, and it's sort of kind of a little disingenuous.

It's kind of it's not really put across the height compared to the neighbors, where every image of this packet kind of really shows quite clearly how this is gonna sit alongside, and it doesn't.

I mean it works in your favor that the scale and the findings.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you for those thoughtful comments.

Anyone else?

Anything to add?

Yeah, I can't really add to that, not being the architect that my colleague is, but I just say that yeah, I'm completely jealous.

And in my I would love we've been talking for 20 years about our single story home and whether we could raise it, but we never had the courage to just do it.

So I wish you the best and good luck living through the construction period.

Very nice looking project.

I can make the findings.

I think everyone here has summed it up well.

I have nothing further to add, and I can also make the findings.

So we seem to have a consensus.

Let's maybe entertain a motion.

Sure.

I'll make a motion of a resolution of the planning commission of the city of Beaumont approving a single family design review at 2028 Lion Avenue, application number 2025-0029.

Wonderful.

So a second.

I'll second that.

Okay.

It's like a vote, please.

Okay.

Commissioner Adam Kavich.

Aye.

Chair Coolich?

Aye.

Commissioner Twig.

Aye.

And Commissioner Jadala?

Aye.

Okay.

Motion passes 40 for 2028 Lion Avenue single family design review.

Great.

Thank you, staff for the presentation.

Congratulations on the approval.

And this matter is appealable within 10 calendar days.

That concludes item 7A and the public hearings portion of our agenda.

We now have item 8, which is other business and updates.

And I'll turn to Director De Mello for any thing to add up for this item.

Yes, and I promise to get you out at about 7 20, so I'll be quick.

First of all, happy holidays.

Great to see all of you.

Thank you for being here tonight.

We appreciate having a quorum to conduct business and get our uh business completed.

So appreciate that.

Um this is the last meeting.

Uh, commission parks and rec planning city council for 2025.

So I just want to thank you again for your tremendous service to the city uh in this regard.

Uh we we need the commission, we value your perspective, we value what you do.

Um, we're all about appreciation.

Today was our holiday employee luncheon.

So a lot of thank yous, a lot of a lot of food too.

Um sweets.

Um, but I appreciate everything that you do.

So thank you.

Um, and then uh as we transition, hate to transition to 2026, but that's gonna be a pun quickly.

Um, our packet for the January 6th meeting is going to be released on the earlier side.

Typically, it's released a week before, but because we're in holiday shutdown mode starting on the 24th, late 24th, and then we don't open for business again until uh Friday, January 2nd.

Um, we're gonna be releasing the packet for you on Tuesday the 23rd.

So you're gonna have a full two weeks to digest that packet.

Now we understand you'll be uh in holiday mode, and maybe reading a planning commission packet won't be the most exciting thing in the world, but um we do have a signature item that's scheduled for that meeting, and that's the Charles Armstrong School project.

Um it is the only item that we anticipate being on that agenda.

So again, we'll release actually the public notice for that meeting a couple days earlier, and then we'll release the packet uh on the 23rd.

Um, and again, if you have any questions, um again, we will be in shutdown mode.

I will have phone with me, email, contact if there are questions that you have about it or anything, like should I do mold spice wine or whatever?

Um, call me, text me, it's fine.

All good.

Um, but other than that, uh January 6th is your next meeting, and I think we anticipate a full compliment of the commission being there for that meeting at this point.

Um so thank you uh again for your service, we really appreciate it.

And uh it's 7 18, so I think I hit the mark.

So thank you.

Did you want to make a public service announcement regarding um the application deadline?

Yes, thank you very much.

Um January 9th is the um application deadline for uh folks to file their applications for commission for for new uh commissioners to file or for incumbents to file.

And I believe we have two sitting up here whose terms are up, Commissioner Twig and Commissioner Adam Kevich.

So if you do have intentions of trying to re-up for the commission, January 9th is your deadline.

So um would love to see you reapply.

So, sorry.

Um, but that's the public service announcement.

Thanks.

So and again, if you have any questions about filing it, um either you could go through me or the city clerk's office.

Uh, but that's the deadline.

So great.

And it's still not yet 7.20.

Still not yet 7.20, so I think we're good.

Awesome.

Well, thank you for that.

Uh and I think that concludes tonight's meeting, and we can adjourn at a record time of 7.19 p.m.

Thank you.

We're adjourned.

Awesome.