Good evening, and thank you for joining our November 4th, 2025 Planning Commission special meeting.

As a reminder, reminder, items will be taken in order they are listed on the agenda.

Before we get started, I wanted to briefly go over public comment procedures for the meeting for those who may be joining us for the first time.

Public comments on the approval of minutes, consent items, matters of the commission interest, and items not on the agenda will be taken during item number two tonight.

Comments on other agenda and items items will be taken only when the item is called.

We are continuing to offer in-person and remote options for our planning commission meetings, however, due to the continued recent disruptions during public comment at open hearings throughout the region and state, we've modified our comment procedures.

At this time, we're temporarily suspending public comment provided by Zoom.

Is there some feedback?

Our public comment procedures are as follows.

Public comment will be taken in person during the meeting or in advance.

We are emailed to PC at rebel city.org.

In-person speakers must turn in their speaker card to an admin or staff that is on the dais to be recognized to speak.

Please be sure to indicate the agenda item number you wish to speak on.

Comments that were emailed to PC at RoboCity.org by 5 pm today, maybe read into the record by the staff liaison and will be made part of the final meeting record.

Both in-person and email comments are subject to the three minute time limit.

I will now turn it over to staff for the roll call.

Commissioner Bond.

Present.

Commissioner Cornejo here.

Commissioner Finch here.

Commissioner Hunter.

And uh Commissioner Robinson is joining us remotely, but he is not yet online.

So we'll check back in and see if he comes on.

Vice Chair Koch.

Here and Chair Swanagar Ratz.

Here.

I'm Sue Xline, the assistant community development director, and staff liaison to the commission.

Other city staff attending this evening.

Rick Jarvis, consultant city attorney.

Ryan Kutchnick is online, he's our senior planner.

Evelyn Garcia, associate planner.

Jonathan Turner, assistant planner, and Christina Mateo, administrative secretary and meeting host.

Thank you, Miss Xline.

And I will uh just wanted to check.

I think Craig is now online.

Uh Craig, are you on you here?

Hello, Craig Robinson present.

Thank you, Craig.

Okay, sorry, you can continue with the item number two.

Great, thank you, Miss Xline.

I'm just gonna ask staff if there are ability to reduce volume.

Maybe on the microphones.

Yes.

Oh, this looks great.

Okay, thank you.

All right, item number two public comments on the approval of minutes, consent items, matters of commission interest and mining items not on the agenda.

Um if you have joined us in person, please fill out a speaker card and bring it to the staff.

Are there any cards present at the dais?

No, okay.

Um, you have if we if there's no objection, I will now close the public comment.

Um, we're moving on to item number three, approval of minutes.

So we have item three A, which is our October 21st, 2025.

Joint planning commission and transportation advisory committee study session.

Is there a motion to approve the draft's joint study session minutes of October 21, 2025?

I'll make that motion.

Oh, and most moved by Commissioner Hunter.

Second.

Second by Commissioner Coke.

Commissioner Bott.

Yes.

Commissioner Cornejo.

Yes.

Commissioner Finch?

Yes.

Commissioner Hunter?

Yes.

Commissioner Robinson.

Commissioner Robinson, can you hear us?

Um Vice Chair Koch?

Yes.

And Chair Sonago Ratz.

Yes.

Uh the motion passes with uh six votes and one um absence.

All right.

Moving on to item 3B, October 21st, 2025 special meeting.

Is there a motion to approve the draft special meeting minutes of October 21st, 2025?

Moved by Commissioner Bott.

Yep.

A second.

Second by Commissioner Hunter.

Commissioner Bott?

Yes.

Commissioner Cornejo?

Yes.

Commissioner Finch?

Yes.

Commissioner Hunter?

Yes.

I'm going to try again with Commissioner Robinson.

He's not on.

Um Vice Chair Koch.

Yes.

And Chair Sonaga Ratz.

Yes.

The motion passes with six to one uh absence.

Great.

All right.

Moving on to item number four, consent calendar.

There are no items on tonight's consent calendar.

We will now move directly on to agenda item number five, which is the public hearing.

5A, location 1548 Maple.

It's a request for planning commission recommendations to the City Council to approve a fourth amendment to the development agreement for the 1548 Maple Street project.

Before the planning commission takes a motion, we will open the public hearing.

At this time, we will take public comments from those joining us in person only.

If you had join us in person, please fill out a speaker card.

Are there any cards at a dais for item 5A?

No.

Okay.

Are there any comments received via email from this agenda item?

No, they were not.

They were not.

Okay, if there's no objection, I will now close the public hearing.

Um and I think there's a recommendation by the staff to motion to continue this item to date and date certain, which is actually in two weeks, November 18th, 2025.

Is there a motion?

Uh we'll entertain a motion, Commissioner Bott.

Uh, motion to continue the item today.

It started in November 18th, 2025.

All right, thank you.

Is there a second?

Second.

Second by Commissioner Koch.

Commissioner Bott.

Yes.

Commissioner Cornejo.

Yes.

Commissioner Finch.

Yes.

Commissioner Hunter?

Yes.

Commissioner Robinson uh Vice Chair Koch?

Yes.

And Chair Sonaga Ratz.

Yes.

The motion passes with by six and one absence.

Alright, thank you.

Um we're moving on to item number five, which is a request for Redwood City Historic Preservation Agreement or a Mills Act contract for the property located at 1018 and 1020 Main Street.

Um Evelyn Garcia, associate planner, will give a presentation on this item.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh good evening, planning commissioners and members of the public.

My name is Evelyn Garcia, and I am the project planner for the Mills at contract request for 1018, 1020 Mill uh Main Street.

So the Mills Act contract request is a three-step process.

First, the it's an HRICHRAC hearing and recommendation to planning commission.

Second is a planning commission hearing recommendation to city council, and the third step is a city council hearing where final action is taken.

The project was presented to the HREC at their October 9 hearing and recommended the Mills Act contract to the Planning Commission.

Uh this is the second step in the process, which is why we are here today.

So the subject property has two homes.

Both are designated historic landmarks and are located within a downtown precise planning area.

1018 Main was built in 1857.

It was designated a historic landmark in 1994 and is an example of a Greek revival architecture.

1020 Main was believed to have been built between 1870 and 1880.

It was designated in 1995, and it's uh an example of Queen Anne architecture.

Consistent with the Mills at contract request, the applicant is proposing the fallen 10-year improvement plan, which has been included as attachment for in the staff materials.

Improvements for both homes include roof, window and paint inspections and renovations as needed.

Following this presentation, the applicant will further detail key components of the improvement plan as he is present here today.

And so with that, staff is recommending the planning commission review the 10-year improvement plan to make a recommendation to the city council.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs.

Garcia, for your presentation.

Are there any clarifying questions that the commission would like to ask staff at this time?

Okay.

Commissioner Buck.

So just for my own clarification, as I understand this property is used for commercial purposes right now, for the yard coffee shop.

And is it just them or is there another business there too?

It is just for the yard coffee shop.

Okay.

It is commercial.

That is correct.

Any other questions?

Okay.

If not, we can move on.

We have the applicant here with us tonight, and then we will open the floor for the applicant to speak on this item.

Thank you.

Good evening, everybody.

I'm Steve Pierce.

I am the owner of 1018 and 1020 Main Street.

And I thought I'd just give you some background, a little more background on the properties themselves, and hopefully kind of contextualize, you know, the application before you.

So indeed, 1018 was built in the 1857, and yes, that's before the civil war.

And I am told it is, you know, probably the oldest structure in Redwood City, or at least amongst there might be another one out there.

But the uh obviously it's very rare to have a one a house of that age, and secondly, in the downtown area.

And it's uh, you know, somewhat uh serendipitous that that's occurred.

In fact, when I pull up the sandborn maps and look at um, you know, that era, 1800s and so forth, uh, Main Street and most of downtown were single family residences.

And over the years, obviously everything kind of converted to commercial uses, uh, but the Offerman family, who um purchased this home in the 1880s, uh, they just hung out and watched the entire city sort of change around them, which is really you know, like I say, quite uh quite unique.

Um it was got passed down through the family, and uh ultimately in uh 1973, after just 84 years of ownership, uh they gave the house up to the uh to the Woodhums.

And this is uh, you know, so unique that we had somebody who's gonna not only own the house for such a long period of time, but also stay through all this transition around them as car shops and whatever popped up next to them.

Um and then the Woodhums, uh I can I think was the the sort of the second stroke of of good luck for us in the community to have these assets, and uh they were very much uh into preservation.

In fact, uh Gladys Woodham's ran her antique shop out of there.

She liked everything old.

Um, and uh so uh they operated their shop out of 1018 for many years, and um it was they who rescued what is now 1020 Main Street, which at one point in time was located on Middlefield Road.

Uh and so they had that moved over uh to the site.

Uh and um that was sort of creates the sort of the site plan that we have now.

Um the uh the Woodhums are the ones who placed both structures on the National Historic Register, and uh, you know, very much as I said, preservation-minded people.

Uh when I knew the Woodham's family, and when they decided that it was time to sell that house, uh as Gladys and her husband had had passed on, uh it wasn't so much uh that they were selling the house as they were looking for another caretaker.

It was sort of passing the baton.

And uh they, you know, I as I said, I knew them uh and had actually assisted them with the sale of of their parents' home in Palo Alto, which is just a magnificent uh arts and crafts home, uh another national register quality house.

And uh so they were they were going through the sort of matchmaking process, knowing I'm a uh something of an of an old property nerd.

Uh they uh fortunately selected me to purchase the purchase the property.

And in part, um I live in a 1905 house.

Uh my office is in an 1896, uh similar sort of downtown Palo Alto.

What is this still doing here kind of situation?

Which I put on the national register a couple of years ago.

Uh so the uh, you know, sort of antique properties are sort of my thing.

They knew that, and I took it over in 2018 and have been going through restoration process and as a 10-year plan uh indicates with homes of this era.

Uh I'll be restoring them continually for quite some some time.

So uh you know, my uh objective here is to hold on to these houses for quite some time to keep them in good condition uh for the community.

And yes, they are in commercial use, which is um something I have to sort of monitor really closely to get the right kind of users so the houses are are well preserved.

But the uh the great thing is is that uh you know the public is welcome any time uh inside, outside.

Uh so they they are really great resources, and particularly quite unique, obviously here in downtown, and as you see, Main Street uh is going very vertical uh all around us.

So it's it's something of a little oasis, and we'll be tucked in hopefully fairly soon with the park that's gonna be constructed on parking lot A.

So I think it's gonna just be uh uh you know a wonderful little environment for for quite some time and for and for the communities to enjoy.

And if I can answer any other questions or any questions, I should say.

Great.

Um thank you for your presentation and uh thank you for for coming tonight.

Uh, are there any questions from the commissioners for the applicant?

I do have a few questions.

Uh if you can just enlighten us.

I mean, I know actually I've visited that property uh many times.

Of course, I go have coffee at the yard, uh, but even 10 years ago I remember having brunch at one of the the buildings.

So they used to be, I guess Alana's cafe.

Alana's cafe, right?

They they were a victim of COVID.

They were a victim of I didn't realize.

So I guess the back property, which is a residential property, has a a kitchen, like a I guess almost like a commercial scale kitchen they could serve.

Uh correct.

That's great.

Correct.

And is the front property uh curious what is the current use?

So uh well, uh 1018, the yellow house, the older one, uh, that is where the yard is located.

Uh and currently they're just finishing up some construction on their kitchens, or they're kind of getting launched to do to do more.

Uh 1020, the blue structure, which is set back somewhat.

Um that's where Alana's was located.

There is a commercial kitchen in there.

Uh and uh there is a tenant who uses the kitchen only.

Um and hopefully they will expand into the to the balance of the building.

Right, right.

Great.

I'll allow Commissioner Hunter to ask his questions, and I have a few more.

Oh, yeah, it used to go to uh Alana's when we first moved here 30 years ago.

Well yeah, every week we went for a breakfast with a bunch of friends to Alana's.

So I'm sorry that that is not a restaurant anymore.

But what are the you you um touched on it, but what what are your plans for um for the building that was Alana's uh will there be another restaurant?

Uh I am seeking, yes, some uh restaurant or some sort of food uh uh related business.

I'm talking now to a couple of tenants, uh, one of whom is a bakery chef.

Um so it could be a couple of different uh sort of uses, but uh my focus is really on kind of food related.

Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Hunter.

I do have a uh follow-up question.

Uh it's about the the level of protection afforded by both your Mills Act versus like a national registry.

I guess in the 90s, both property or both structures were protected, a national registry, uh, and and I really appreciate that you know uh there's been mindful transfer ownership to individuals who are really invested into these and the historical background of all these properties.

Uh I'm curious whether uh the Mills Act, maybe this is a um a question for staff offers an extra layer of protection, I guess, in terms of preservation of these properties that the national registry does not.

I'm curious.

I don't know.

Well, the national register sort of designates it, you know, gives it that designation.

And then there are certain procedures that come along with that.

So if anybody wanted to do any modifications to the structure to the exterior, um they would be subject to the Secretary of Interior standards.

Right.

Uh so that's what sort of comes along with that.

The Mills Act is uh is much more of a practical day-to-day.

It's like, okay, and what exactly are you going to do to maintain this, you know, over the you know the 10 years.

So I think one is more honorific that does come with obviously some serious controls with respect to modification and the Mills Act is more into that the day-to-day uh, you know, preservation of it.

Uh, because there certainly are a lot of designated houses that just sort of crumble, you know.

Um, and I think the Mills Act, the intent is, you know, it really it's it is a financial burden.

I mean, we all you know maintain our places and the older they get the more difficult that it becomes.

So uh, you know, I think the Mills Act is quite appropriate and at with all the things that we've done and are planning on doing just in terms of maintaining, um, it'll be very, very helpful.

Great.

Yeah, I think I appreciate that answer.

Uh, and I do agree, yeah, it's it is a mountain of work to uh maintain these type of properties, and I really appreciate the uh the 10 year schedule that you've outlined in the application uh as to the improvements uh in maintenance that they'll be done.

And I also am heartened to see that uh that I guess the the natural resources, as you mentioned, it's it is an oasis.

There's lots of mature trees on the property.

Uh forget there's a palm and a north old pine, which is a very rare species, and I'm hoping that that's also included within the the maintenance schedule too.

Oh yeah, the uh yeah, we've had some tree problems there, but the the trees that are now there, um yeah, we plan to preserve.

And I think part of it, particularly with the palm, um, which are lovely in their own way, but they do throw off uh death fronds.

So that takes uh, you know, particularly if you got a nice little restaurant around here and one of these hundred pound fronds come out of the trees.

So that's on a on a and we want to keep that on a very close maintenance schedule to make sure that that is not a hazard.

Great.

And then last question I have is about the um the driveway and the parking lot that extends to the back of the property, and we'll be immediately abutting the the newly renovated park, hopefully in the next two or three years.

So is it currently used as customer parking, I guess, for for the two properties?

Uh that is correct.

Okay, great.

And do you know the the provenance of it?

Was it there when you purchased the property or was it expanded, or is there any history towards uh, no, it is the way it was when I acquired it.

Um so yeah, there haven't been any changes there.

Got it.

I I do up I do appreciate you know how useful it is to have customer parking on-site parking for anyone who comes to you know, either to the yard or potentially a future restaurant.

Um, one mention I was gonna say, and then it's something that is just a suggestion, um, is that we have had uh applicants with Mills Act projects come before this uh panel before in within the downtown district that had to do um improvements, including on their driveways and parking lots, and some improvements looked very nice, and um, and I was just gonna suggest potentially having pavers instead of Ashvelt or Blacktop uh as a surface for the for the driveway and parking lot.

This is not something I I'm requiring, I'm just um suggesting as a potential whenever the next cycle in 10 years or whatever when it comes for replacement, just consider that implementation.

Yeah, so the um yeah, ultimately, you know, it is going to have to be upgraded or or changed out.

And I for me the the issues are uh the surface should obviously tie in with the historicity of the site.

Yeah.

Um secondly, it's gotta be obviously functional.

And and what I mean there, uh in a practical way is uh all of our dumpsters and whatnot are you know behind the houses in the back, but we have to, because of the narrowness of that uh driveway, we have to bring them out, drag them out there.

So we need a nice smooth surface.

Yeah, so the pillowy kind of pavers just aren't gonna work.

Um and these are just considerations and and the third one, of course, is the fire department.

Yeah.

You know, they they want everything, you know, at 8,000 PSI.

Uh so um I I think you know, so you know, obviously no, you know, plan per se right now, but those are some of the considerations and and actually as we speak, the um I'm having the the big patio.

Uh basically we tore all of those bricks up and are relaying them uh because things were heaving and it was it was getting to be kind of a tripping hazard there.

Uh and it spent some quite a bit of time on trying to figure out okay, what should this look like?

What should the pattern because it was a real kind of mishmash of stuff?

Um some of it popping up, some of it not.

But um, but I think if you went over there and saw, you know, it'll be done in a week, but go over and get your you know, cup of coffee, and I think you know, you'll see where my head is at in terms of you know those surfaces, uh, because I think I think ultimately as simple as it is, just a running bond sort of thing.

We want to do other things, but it yeah, just didn't work with the configuration.

But um, you know, we used all the old antique bricks that were there, uh, got some more to augment.

Um, and so and you know, I think when you walk in the patio, go, yeah, this works.

This this fits with this.

Um so I don't know what the driveway might look like in the in the future, but that'll at least be give you kind of a sense of where my head is with with respect to those kinds of improvements.

Thank you.

Thank you for the response.

Actually, you raise a really good point about you know fire access, especially that Queen Anne House is kind of tucked back, and there's really no other way to access it.

Uh if a fire truck has to put it.

I've had a lot of beautiful plans in the past that that everybody loved except for the fire department.

And the fire department apparently rules the world.

It seems to be uh for better or worse, I'm not sure.

But um, yeah, I mean I was also gonna say if if the improvements at the Roselli Park do materialize, you will have you know thousands of people enjoying programming over there that you may potentially have a back gate to the proper to the.

Yeah, I actually as I was driving up this evening, I got a note to self.

We need a I need to negotiate that in.

Great.

Um I really appreciate your responses.

Okay, any other questions for the applicant?

There's one from yeah, Mr.

Commissioner Butt.

No, there oh, there's one.

Um Craig, Mr.

Robinson, I'm so sorry I didn't see you.

Uh your turn.

I don't know if you can hear me.

Um can you guys hear me now?

Yes.

All right.

Hey, it's not not actually a question.

Um I just want to say uh the housing and human concerns committee of Redwood City, while I served several years ago, enjoyed many uh holiday celebrations, lunches and breakfasts uh there at Alanis Cafe.

So it's uh uh quite uh a pleasure to see this one come through for further preservation with the Mills Act.

And uh thank you for uh preserving this this asset right in the center of our city so everybody can see examples of architecture during that time period and really appreciate that it's still being kept open uh to the public.

So thank you.

My pleasure.

All right.

Thank you, Commissioner Robinson.

Um if there are no more questions, I will now open the hearing to the public.

At this time we'll take comments from the those of us joining us in person only.

If we were joined in person, please fill out a speaker's card and bring into the dais.

It looks like we do have uh a couple of speakers.

I will um I will call the speakers um in person first, and then we'll turn it over to Staff Liaison to read any public comments that were received by email.

Um we have two.

I'm gonna call on Glenn Babbitt um to speak on item five B.

You have three minutes.

Do you think we have slides?

Oh, we do.

Look at that.

Good evening, commissioners, members of the uh community.

My name is Glenn Babbitt.

I'm a resident of Redwood City.

I'm also a member of the Historic Resources Committee, but only speaking for myself this evening.

Good to see you again.

Um the applicant did a good job with historic context.

So I would just like to comment that these two properties make a uh a beautiful transition between the Stanby Heller Historic District and the downtown historic district.

So we're very fortunate with where they are.

That was very lucky for us.

Um I'd also like to comment on adaptive reuse, the commercial use of this property, and how important that is to us.

I put up this quote because I think the relation between our history, why we care about that and how it relates to our future can be a little tricky.

And this quote really sums it up for me, and I'm just gonna let that stand as it is and see if I can figure out the uh remote.

Um so how do you get to have a house named after you?

Like if you were gonna have uh if you're gonna go for the X-line house, how would you do that?

Um it's really important to start early.

You have to get in pretty early.

Um here's Broadway in Maine in 1887.

The uh the uh Dealman Bakery is probably in that cluster of buildings to the left.

Um way in the back, you can see sales for the working harbor.

So that's what kind of a community this was at the time.

Most of the other buildings there are probably bars.

Um for a brief time, the dealman house was a mobile home.

Um the applicant touched on the fact that it had to move from, I believe it was down near uh county government center.

And so here it is coming up uh Jefferson during the uh disco days.

Now, Offerman did have a store, but people remember him because he had beer.

He uh he built this brewery in the downtown because that's what kind of place it was.

You know, a brewery must have been pretty stinky down there, but it was dockside, people wanted beer after work.

So um people forget the store.

We got the brewery.

You can see on the side, there's a different person's name uh in the true Silicon Valley startup tradition.

He built this place and about four years later, he just sold it off to somebody else because he was a startup kind of guy.

So that's who we're talking about tonight.

Um I tried to get portraits of them.

Uh the uh local history museum doesn't seem to have any.

They weren't particularly memorable.

So if you want a house named after you, you probably get a pretty nice house and take care of the details and look after it.

Well, that's the trick, I think.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Babbitt.

We always appreciate your comments.

Um, were there any public comments received by email?

No, if there's no objection, I will now close the public hearing and I will open the meeting for committee discussion.

Commissioner Finch.

Uh yes, I just wanted to say uh thank you for the the presentation and um to Mr.

Babbitt, thank you for the slides.

That was great.

I didn't know you could do slides and public comment.

Um I yeah, I I really love this place.

I've I've I've been there taking a coffee.

I think it's it's great to see a Mills Act contract um request that is commercial and so open to the public.

Like I'm always so jealous I don't get to see in these cool old historic houses.

So it's wonderful to see one that's being preserved that you know the public can see.

Um, and uh yeah, and I appreciate the work that's already being done in um I've seen I've walked by and seen the construction in the in the patio area, so that's great to see.

So um, yeah, I'm I'm in favor of uh approving the Mills Act request.

Thank you, Commissioner Finch.

Uh Commissioner Cornejo.

Yeah, I just um want to say that that location has become such a community hub, and I see so many great um people meeting each other, new relationships are formed.

There's really a sense of positivity, and um I'm really looking forward to continuing that.

I I didn't get the chance of um visiting the the uh the place before Alana's, I believe, but um the yard and the whole location has become uh one of my favorites.

So I really hope that Redwood City creates these community hubs all around where everybody's welcome, dogs are welcome, so that's great.

Thank you, Commissioner Cornejo.

Commissioner Koch.

Thank you, Mr.

Price.

Thank you so much for coming this evening.

It was a great inspiration, and it was a wonderful presentation.

Um, I spent way too many Sunday mornings in Alanis, and so I was here then.

Um, and if I remember, I think the house next door often was part of the open artist studio, part of the loop, and um I spent a lot of time going through going through the house there as well, which was wonderful because when we did the Redwood City Open Artist Studios, we went sort of did the path and went through a lot of different homes and small spaces that had our local artists and they were able to show their works.

Um I love that it's in downtown.

I live right here, and it's such they're such iconic buildings, and I agree with my fellow commissioner that it's such a wonderful gathering space now, and just to be able to sit outside.

Although I did trip the last time that I was there, so I'm due to so it's so refreshing to hear that we're gonna have a little bit more stable ground to stand on, so I look forward to that.

Um we are most fortunate to have two such amazing buildings right here for public use in our downtown, and I thank you for taking care of them with such incredible care and and preservation experience for all to enjoy.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Commissioner Koch.

Uh Commissioner Butt, floor is yours.

Yeah, um yeah, thank you very much for the presentation.

Um as Commissioner Finch said, like I'm very strongly in favor of this uh Mills Act contract purely because it's a historic property that the public can actually see.

Um they can go inside, they can actually see the construction.

Um and I also appreciate the tenant you've chosen.

Um, like I'm a musician myself and uh the art often hosts open mic nights in the evenings on Fridays, and I go to those.

I've gone to those many of those.

Um, so yeah, thank you for all your work preserving this building.

Thank you, Commissioner Bott.

Um, all right, are there any motions of the floor?

All right, Commissioner Hunter.

Absolutely.

Uh I will enthusiastically make a motion to uh adopt the resolution recommending that the city council approve the historic preservation agreement for 1018 to 1020 Main Street.

Thank you.

Is there a second?

Commissioner Cornejo is a second.

Yes.

I will now open the floor for discussion on the motion that was brought up.

Anyone would like to discuss.

I I um I don't want to speak any further.

I think my commissioners have said everything positive about this, and it's it's a wonderful project to move forward.

If there's no objection, I will move to a vote.

Commissioner Bott.

Yes.

Commissioner Cornejo.

Yes.

Commissioner Finch?

Yes.

Commissioner Hunter?

Yes.

Commissioner Robinson.

Yes.

Vice Chair Koch.

Yeah.

Yes.

And Chair Sernagaretz.

Yes.

The motion passes seven to zero.

All right.

Congratulations.

All right.

Moving right along, we're going towards um item 5C, which is a request for Redwood City Historic Landmark Designation and a historic preservation agreement for a MILSAC contract for the property located at 979 Arlington Road.

Jonathan Turner, our assistant planner will give a presentation on the item.

Good afternoon, Planning Commissioners and members of the public.

My name is Jonathan Turner, and I am the project planner for the Mills at contract request at 979 Arlington Road.

So the Millsak contract process is a three-step process.

First beginning with uh HRAC, which was conducted on October 9th, and was passed at a vote of three to zero.

The second step is today, which is the planning commission public hearing, where the project proposal will be heard and then recommended for approval to the city council.

And then the final step is the city council will also review and take final action on the item.

So the project site is located at 979 Arlington Road.

It was built in 1928 by a notable architect, uh Gilbert Hodgson.

It is a very high integrity example of a Spanish colonial revival style.

And there are many features both internally and externally of the home that reflect this style.

Also shown in the picture some additional examples of that uh Spanish colonial revival style.

The project qualifies under the historic designation criteria for C and D, again, because of the notable architect, as well as for its craftsmanship and its character, embodying and maintaining much of the original uh style of the home.

Provided here is the 10-year improvement plan.

Um, there is a focus in the first two years on floor refinishing, followed by door and screen maintenance, uh restorations, refinishing, and additional restorations, as well as ongoing maintenance from the period lasting from 2026 through 2035.

Uh staff request that the planning commission adopt resolution 2510 recommending that the city council approve the historic preservation agreement and mills at contract for the residents at 979 Arlington.

That concludes my presentation.

Uh the applicant is available for questions as well.

Um there are additional pictures uh for your reference here of additional um historic examples of the integrity of the home.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Turner, for your presentation.

Um, are there any clarifying questions that the commission would like to ask staff?

All right, seeing none at this time, we'll proceed.

Um there's no applicant's presentation, but are there any clarifying questions that the commission would like to ask from the applicant?

All right, so we're none.

I'll not sorry, Commissioner Butt, please.

Yeah, I just I'm just curious about the house itself.

Um, one of the items on the improvement plan is to restore pulley operations um to the foyer in the dining room windows.

Um what does what does that mean?

Like is there a pulley system that goes throughout the house that opens windows?

Um, in uh David Bartersek, the owner of the home.

The um, the way the old uh windows in pedestrian terms uh there was uh weighted sash, if you will, that was contained within the framework of the window uh because the windows are quite heavy, and so that offset.

So you can actually use a couple of fingers to lift the window up based on the weights that are counterbalancing it inside.

Those aren't all operational, and so we want to bring those back to life.

Thank you, sure.

Thank you so much.

Um, any other questions from the applicant?

All right.

Uh seeing none, I will now move to the public hearing.

At this time, we will take public comments from those that joining us in person only.

Um I have received the card.

Um, and we'll go over the in-person speakers first, and then we'll turn it over to the staff of the zone to read any public comments that were received by email.

All right, uh, we'll call on Glenn Babbitt again.

The floor is yours.

You have three minutes to speak.

Good evening again.

My name's Glenn Babbitt, resident of Redwood City, member of HRAC, but speaking just my personal opinions this evening.

It's unusual for us, I think, to qualify under uh condition number four, because houses at this time many times the uh architect wasn't recorded, and so often we we don't know.

And in this case, it's a bit unusual, and I thought I'd speak to that.

Um, who exactly is Gilbert Hutch, and anyway, and why do we care?

Well, if you go to your bookshelf and take down your biographical dictionary of Canadian architects, as I did.

No, this is uh off a duck duck go.

You get screen after screen of structures like this that uh this architect was responsible for, both in his home in England where he uh was born and uh trained.

He moved to Calgary to uh take a job there.

Uh so many of his works are in the Calgary area, but yeah, he's done banks, warehouses, schools, firehouses, residences, all kinds of stuff.

He's big.

Um that was pretty abrupt.

There we go.

This is uh just an example of one that he did uh that's been adaptively reused.

Um to go back to that.

It uh was just a warehouse.

Now you can see it's been refurbished as uh a living office building.

They've kept the old signage.

Um they added uh a half story there, but you can hardly tell.

They kept the same uh entrance.

Um another example, he designed this firehouse in Calgary.

Um that's been adaptively reused as you can see, uh, much like our firehouse number one right across the street from us.

So very similar to uh what we have going on.

But as far as his residences go, I just picked one out.

Um this one is a bit different, but you can see the uh intricacies in the window work, uh, the brick work.

Uh I'm sure the applicant will note the uh this guy had a good sense of entry doors.

He he really liked his doors, and he did a good job with those things.

Um again, just his use of uh the uh the multi-pane windows and the uh brick and and his entryways, I think are pretty outstanding.

This was uh, this cost nine thousand dollars if you can believe that to build it, but I know that's pretty bad.

It was Canadian, so it's not as bad as it sounds, actually.

Um so here's one in Redwood City.

This uh is still at the corner of um uh James and uh Hudson.

So you can go by and uh see that one.

So what I would like to do once this is fully um approved by the city council, is uh add an extra line with one more entry for uh Hodgson's entry in his dictionary.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Babbitt, for your comment.

Um I have no other speaker cards.

Were there any comments received uh via email from the public?

There were none.

There's no objection.

I will now close the public hearing, and I will open the meeting for committee discussion.

Commissioner Finch.

Uh yes, I just wanted to thank Mr.

Babbitt again for the the public comments.

I I always appreciate those, uh, especially with the the added context and the um the pretty pictures as well.

Um yeah, I I think the uh house looks great.

I think um and yeah, just in favor of the uh Mills Act contract.

Great, thank you, Mr.

Commissioner Finch.

Um Commissioner Robinson.

Yes, I've uh walked by this house numerous times, and it's an absolutely gorgeous uh uh well-kept home.

And uh typically in historic preservation, you'll you'll want to see the original home, and this one had an addition.

Um, this addition, however, is very respectful of the original architecture and does not look at it or anything like that.

One would, you know, a lay person like myself would not know that.

Um so I'm I'm very supportive of this one, um, making sure that we can have this type of architecture preserved uh, you know, at least for another 10 years in our community that is seeing um rapid uh tear down and rebuild, particularly in uh that uh part of town.

So thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Robinson.

Any other comments?

Yeah, I'm I mean uh I will also like to add a couple of comments.

I'm really am excited about this building.

I have not had a chance to uh appreciate it very often since I don't walk uh that far away from my house to that part of town.

Uh however, I do appreciate and I really enjoy the asymmetric frontage and massing uh and of course, uh all the uh appointments of Spanish colonial style house.

Uh I live in another also have a very old uh Spanish colonial house, but it's not historically significant by any means.

But I remember seeing the pulleys somewhere like in the crawl space, and I thought there were like mines from World War II.

I had to show somebody like they're very heavy and like what is this for?

I have to anyway.

Someone politely explained to me they're not mines, but they're pulleys.

Um, and uh I also especially did not realize in the detail that Mr.

Hodgson is from or worked significant part of his career in Calgary, Alberta, where I grew up.

And I just saw on the list that you said that not only did I go to the middle school that this gentleman built my high school is also built by Mr.

Hodgson.

So I have spent I guess eight years of my life in buildings uh made by this mr.

Uh and and of course they're very nice and classical brick buildings, quite large in scale.

Um, so I'm happy to hear that they will be an example here in Robo City.

So I also would highly recommend to move forward.

Um is there a motion on the floor?

So moved.

All right.

Uh moved by Commissioner Robinson.

Do I have a second?

Second?

Second by Commissioner Hunter.

Um, just uh, just uh a legal or technical point here.

Um the recommendation that's so this this I think is a little different than the first property we did because they were the those properties on Maine were already historical, um historical landmarks, and this one we're also declaring this or recommending that we declare this in historical landmark, right?

So I just want to clarify that there is that technical difference from the first property.

That's correct.

Yeah, that's that's missing from the recommendation.

The designation is missing from the resume from this recommendation, but it is in the resolution.

Okay, so right.

Um I will open for discussion for the second time.

Uh if there's any further comments, Commissioner Hunter.

No, no, I will move straight ahead towards voting.

Roll call.

Commissioner Bott.

Yes.

Commissioner Cornejo.

Yes.

Commissioner Finch.

Yes.

Commissioner Hunter.

Yes.

Commissioner Robinson.

Yes.

Vice Chair Koch.

Yes.

And Chair Sona Goretz.

Yes.

The motion passes seven to zero.

Wonderful.

Congratulations.

All right.

We are moving on item number six, which is matters of commissioner commission committee interest.

Um, we have planning commission liaison updates.

So there was, you know, some discussion last time about the November 18th meeting, and and as you noted, we are continuing the um 1548 maple item to November 18th.

So we will have um that meeting uh scheduled at that time.

Um there is a uh couple meetings we're trying to kind of figure out for the December timeframe.

We'll be in touch.

Um, I think most of you responded.

I saw already for a potential special meeting, in which case we would remove that's December 2nd.

If the 16th went forward.

We are working through um with the applicant on a project there, which uh what time frame um can be met for that project.

I did also want to let the commission know that we had um originally scheduled the Greater Downtown Area Plan um study session for city council um this coming Monday, and that is um there's a very long meeting uh scheduled for Monday, so that's being moved.

Um I think tentatively it's a January um date.

It'll be heard at the council on that date.

Uh on Monday, there is um the uh one project that's um probably of interest to folks is the YMCA um entitlement and changes to the master agreement will be heard on Monday at City Council.

So that's some upcoming um items uh for your interest.

Um that's all I have.

Great.

Thank you, Ms.

X-line.

Um, are there any commission updates from the commissioners?

All right, seeing none, we'll move to item number and number seven.

This concludes the items for tonight's agenda.

The next planning committee commission meeting is scheduled for November eighteenth, twenty twenty five.

Thank you.