All right.

You're linked.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's going to take you a second.

So okay, good afternoon.

Welcome to the subdivision committee meeting of March 4th, 2026.

My name is Amber Blazinski.

I'm presiding over the hearing today as the zoning administrator.

I'll call the meeting to order at 4 p.m.

Section two of the agenda is roll call.

Today we have Quinn Bayer and Principal Civil Engineer and myself.

And together we comprise of the subdivision committee for today's hearing.

Brenda Sylvia, the community services director is not in attendance today, but we have a quorum with two of the three subdivision committee members present.

Today's hearing will operate in a hybrid format.

Staff, the applicants, and some community members are in person.

However, we'll also ask if community members joining us virtually want to speak on an item at certain points in the meeting.

When those opportunities arise, typically during the public comment portion of each agenda item, members of the public wishing to comment may do so by clicking on the raise hand feature in Zoom when I announce the item on which you wish to speak.

Speakers will be notified of their turn shortly before they're called on to speak.

If you've phoned in today, then you'll dial star nine to raise your hand.

When you're called on to speak, please press star six to unmute yourself.

All speakers virtual or in person will have two to three minutes to provide comments dependent on how many their comments commenters we have.

If you're in person and you wish to comment on the item today, please fill out that yellow speaker card over there and hand it to our clerk, Roxanne here.

Um this will help us spell your name correctly, but also it will help us call people quickly to get them up to the podium during the public comment portion.

So the next portion of the meeting is oral communications from the public.

This is the time set aside for people wishing to address the zoning administrator on a map, any matter that's not on the agenda.

So not the agenda item.

This is other things.

Speakers are limited to three minutes, and state law prohibits any action on any items which are not on the agenda.

So first I'll ask the people in the room: is there anybody in the room who wishes to speak on any items that aren't on the agenda?

Okay, not seeing anyone.

So then I will ask if there's anybody in the audience.

No one virtually.

Okay, thanks.

So we'll move on to section four of the agenda, which is the subdivision committee portion of the hearing.

So we have one item to discuss today.

Uh item 4.1 is 555 West Middlefield with a request for a vesting tentative map to create three new lots, including one lot for a future 1.34 acre public park and one lot for a condominium purposes with 97 condominium units and a recommended determination that the project is saturatorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act pursuant to section 21080.66 of the public resources code.

The map has been submitted just for everyone's information.

Uh, this was also in the notice, but the map's been submitted in conjunction with a request for a planned community permit, a development review permit, and a heritage tree removal permit to construct a 323-unit addition to the existing 404-unit residential apartment complex, which will be reviewed at the future council hearing.

So we're not talking about the project today, we're just making a recommendation on the map.

Um, it's important to note that decisions made on this item are in the form of a recommendation to the city council, who will make the final decision on this map and on the project as a whole at a public hearing that's tentatively scheduled for March 24th, 2026.

Uh Sam Hughes is the project planner.

Sam, do you have a staff presentation for the committee?

I do.

Um I do that.

I can just share screen though.

Yeah.

Afternoon, subdivision committee and uh members of the public.

My name is Sam Hughes.

I'm the project planner for uh 555 West Middlefield Road.

Project located at 555 West Middlefield Road, on a 14.5 acre site in the high low density residential general plan discavation and the P or Plan Community Zoning District.

Surrounding land uses include a two-story condominium complex to the north and to the south of the property.

State Route 85, Stevens Creek and multi-family residential to the east and to the west, there is a service station and then crop off the boulevard and a mobile home park shopping center.

Um which has recently been approved for entitlements for mixed use development at 400 office.

The proposed vesting tentative map or subdivision map shown here would create three new lots, including one lot for a future 1.34 acre public park and one for condominium purposes or up to 97 fundamental.

Subdivision committee is tasked with reviewing the requested testing tentative map and making a recommendation in the form of report account alongside the besting tentative map that's been requested.

The applicant has also requested approval for a five-community permit, development compute permit, and heritage tree removal permit on the same site to construct a 323 unit addition to an existing 404 unit residential apartment complex.

I'll note that these requested development approvals are all outside of the subdivision committee's purview at the city council will review all requested entitlements, including a subdivision map at a public hearing tentatively scheduled for March 24, 2026.

Including a recommendation that the project is statutorily exempt from CEQA as provided in one thirty for the urban building session.

This concludes the staff presentation.

I'm available for questions.

All right, thank you, Sam.

Uh so the applicant's turn to make a presentation.

Did you have a presentation you want to make?

Uh just a brief report.

Okay, sure.

Yeah, come on up.

Oh, just uh yeah.

So my name's Charlie Koch.

I'm a development director with Avalon Bay, and I'm here with your first shopper from Avalon Bay working PSBL and we can't settlements consultant.

Uh this is a project that we're really excited to be at this stage in the approvals process.

Uh the vested tenative map specifically is going to allow us to donate the public park to the city, which is a really important community benefit.

It will also allow us to condo map uh building B in the project.

Avalon Bay itself is an apartment owner and developer, but it allows the potential for condos for ownership housing in the future, which uh has been an important aspect of the project as it was previously approved back in 2022 with the prior design.

Um something that they've retained in the updated design that we are uh discussing today.

Uh, we generally agree with the findings and the conditions of approval that you all are reviewing today.

Uh there are some uh finer points that we are still discussing with city staff about the parkland condition, but I think we're very close to an agreement on that to effectively allow Avalon Bay to use that area for construction staging and for resident parking, which will help reduce the construction impacts on the neighborhood during construction.

So uh all of that is looking good to Avalon Bay, and you're here to help answer any questions that you may have today.

Uh and I think our land use attorney may be dialed in on the phone as well.

So questions on legal and that's good.

Thanks.

Thanks, Shredd.

Okay, um, so that uh we'll now open the item up for public comment.

So I think I have three in the room.

Can you raise your hand?

If you're gonna speak, are you gonna speak to?

Well, I answer the cards, right?

Yes, I'm asking this gentleman here because you didn't get up.

Okay, and then um, so if you're online and you wish to speak, can you please raise your hand to so that I know what our total is?

No one online.

Okay, so um you'll each have three minutes.

Um, and when you when Roxanne uh calls your name, you'll need to come up to the podium because that's where we can hear you best.

Okay, so uh Roxanne, who's first?

Markle um oh, okay, thanks, George.

Okay.

Um, who is next?

Sylvia.

Yeah, all right, Sylvia.

Um, whether there are any on there from place.

My first question is whether there are any underground parts, it's planned.

On the new buildings.

We don't do questions.

So if you want to relay comments to us, then the applicant could cut come up after and address any comments, but it's mainly you're just speaking to us as the subdivision committee and you're giving us comments.

Yeah, questions could be answered outside the meeting, or uh if the applicant wishes to come and make more comments, that's also fine.

Not sure I understand it.

Okay.

Right, then I try to make a comment.

Uh if I understand it correctly, then the can you um actually you're talking to us?

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, so we can't hear you otherwise, unfortunately.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

So if I understand correctly, the area that is planned to be handed over as a park is the area which is right now underground parking.

So I just don't see the point.

I'm sorry, breaking up all the concrete when we find that have some underground parking, and then hoping that the poutries will somehow manage to leave on top of that heap of local.

Okay.

All right.

So then I can change the question, the previous house because I I have seen the earlier class, and there were no underground parkings under the buildings plan.

So that is also my comment that I don't know how to put it positively, but uh uh still sound like a question.

Uh wouldn't it be better to have some more underground parking rather than building extra parking structure?

Okay, so thank you.

Um question to the city is when the plan was up before it was that uh park was going to be level first.

Second part of the instruction was going to be building A.

And then it was going to be um B where the condominiums are now.

I'd like to know if the city is going to put in their approval.

Um this procedure, there's a horrific parking problem of a substandard street.

That uh there's only one exit off the street.

And I think this is really important for the city to consider.

Is that understandable?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Right.

Um, would the applicant like to come up and address any of the comments that you heard?

Just kind of talk a little bit more about the project and your site design and how it relates to some of these questions that came up.

Um yeah, happy to.

So uh the one question is I understand it about underground parking.

Um, the site as it's currently configured in the updated proposal includes surface parking at building B, and then above grade parking garages at buildings A and C.

Uh the previous project proposal that was approved in 2022, included below grade parking.

Uh, the main reason why we came back with a new project proposal is because below grade parking is extremely expensive to build, and uh that project was not financially feasible.

So the updated parking design puts the parking that was below grade into these above grade structures.

The park parcel itself, once we are complete with using it for construction staging and resident parking during the construction process, is going to be dedicated to the city as a graded flat launch.

The city will then have its own design and construction process to build a new public park, um, which the city could speak to at greater length.

Um the other question about the traffic impacts on the street, um Cypress Point Drive.

So uh this project is going to be about a net equal number of parking spaces once built out relative to the current parking.

Well, no, there will be residence uh access in the street.

Um and in the uh traffic analysis that was completed for the originally approved project in 2022.

There was this extensive analysis of the traffic impacts on Cyclist Point Drive from a level of service perspective, and it found that those impacts were pretty minimal.

Sure.

Um order, yeah.

Yeah, I'll ask the I mean you're okay.

Uh I I'll I was gonna ask you the follow-up question.

So just um can you go through kind of the phasing on the project?

Like old versus new, maybe, but just so everyone in the room understands old doesn't really matter anymore because this is a new project.

So what the phasing is on this new project, and I think how it related to what was previously proposed.

Um so the the project phasing of construction is still planned to start at the parking school.

It would then move to buildings A and B.

Um, and then finish with building C.

Uh there would be overlap of the construction of uh the park uh getting completed and turned into a construction, the the demo of that area being completed and turned into a construction staging area.

That would be overlapped with A potentially a little bit, and then uh A would potentially overlap with building B.

Uh we have done studies of the volume of parking that we can provide on the project site uh for our residents as we phase the construction and have found that we can maintain adequate parking for our residents during phase construction build up.

So uh that's been an important part of the project uh as approved is to uh not result in any displacement and to minimize disturbance to those existing residents throughout the construction phasing.

So it's something we've we've carefully uh carefully maintained and something we've submitted documents to the city to dance right.

Okay is that answer the question?

Yeah, thank you, Charlie.

Um Roxanne, just double checking.

There was no one online who okay, all right.

So we'll go ahead and close the public hearing now.

Um so the subdivision committee will now act on the vesting tentative map for the project and make the recommended determination that the project is statutorily exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act.

Um, does my subdivision committee colleague have any questions, comments, or wish to make a motion?

I'm ready to make a motion.

Okay.

So I make a motion to recommend to the city council to approve the testing tentative map, subject to the conditions of approval and um and conformance with the general plan and zoning code.

Thank you.

I'll second that motion.

Um and uh Ms.

Rutherford, will you do a roll call vote for us?

Yes, priority, yes.

All right, so a motion of approval for item 4.1 was made and passed unanimously by the subdivision committee.

Again, with the reminder that our decision is a recommendation to the city council who will take the final action on the map and then also on the project.

Um so this concludes our public hearing today at 4.18 p.m.

If anyone has any follow-up questions on any of the items on the agenda, please contact the project planner, which is Sam.

Thank you.