Sacramento Preservation Commission Meeting - October 16, 2019: Cemetery Operations, Housing Streamlining, and Valley Station Master Plan
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Sacramento Preservation Commission Meeting - October 16, 2019
The Preservation Commission met on Wednesday, October 16, 2019, at 5:30 PM in City Hall Council Chamber, 915 I Street, 1st Floor. The meeting included a consent calendar, four discussion items, public comments, and a director's report. The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 PM.
Consent Calendar
- Item 1: Approval of Meeting Minutes of September 18, 2019 – Approved unanimously (6-0-1, Commissioner Miller-Cruiess absent).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Historic City Cemetery Operations and Assessment Study:
- Judy Eitzen (President, Old City Cemetery Committee, Inc.) – Expressed support for the cemetery operations study, emphasized the committee's primary focus on education and fundraising (not just gardening), and encouraged a formal Memorandum of Understanding with the city.
- Anita Clevenger (Former volunteer rose garden curator) – Raised concerns about the termination of her volunteer service, the loss of volunteer rose garden staff, and the impact of city guidelines on rose arbors. Requested implementation of the 2019 horticultural guidelines and exploration of alternatives for trellises.
- Jennifer Holden (Community member) – Expressed disappointment with the city's perceived shift from volunteer stewardship to revenue generation (e.g., movie nights), arguing the cemetery should remain a community resource, not a tourist attraction. She presented photos showing poor conditions under previous city management.
- Planning and Development Code Amendments:
- William Burg (Preservation Sacramento) – Opposed the proposed streamlining, arguing it reduces public participation, especially for large projects. Criticized the elimination of automatic commission review thresholds, the daytime director-level meetings, and the private Architectural Review Committee. Recommended making ARC meetings public and requiring early developer outreach.
- Steven Cvitanov – Supported streamlining, citing difficulty in selling his property due to unclear historic district rules. Favored ministerial approval processes and argued that historic district plans counter the city's housing goals.
- Catherine Turnill-Lupo (Boulevard Park Neighborhood Association) – Expressed concern that the code amendments conflict with the ongoing Historic District Plans project and may undermine preservation principles.
- Streamlined Ministerial Approval of Housing Projects:
- Steven Cvitanov – Disagreed with excluding historic districts from the city's ministerial process, stating it limits housing variety and contradicts the General Plan. He supported SB 35 and ministerial approval but opposed the exclusion.
- Public Comments – Matters Not on Agenda:
- Steven Cvitanov – Raised concerns about ambiguity in alley infill setback diagrams in the Historic District Plans, questioning whether his property is buildable and requesting clarity.
Discussion Items
- Item 2: Historic City Cemetery Operations and Assessment Study – Staff (Gary Haydn, YPCE; Andrew McVicar, Cemetery Manager) presented the study, highlighting key findings: limited staff time, lack of formal volunteer agreements, insufficient capital funding. Recommendations included hiring a full-time cemetery manager (completed), establishing formal volunteer MOUs, digitizing records, and creating an endowment fund. Commissioners discussed the endowment concept, the need for a standardized work order system, and the importance of preserving historic character. The commission reviewed and commented without taking action.
- Item 3: Planning and Development Code Amendments (M19-004) – Garrett Norman presented amendments to streamline site plan and design review, conditional use permits, and tentative subdivision maps. Key changes: eliminate automatic commission-level review thresholds for large projects, delegate more decisions to the director level, and establish an informal Architectural Review Committee (ARC) for early design input. Public participation improvements include early posting of development signs and mailing notices to occupants. The commission asked clarifying questions about impacts on historic districts and requested regular reports on director-level decisions. The item will proceed to the Planning and Design Commission and City Council.
- Item 4: Streamlined Ministerial Approval of Housing Development Projects – Ryan Dodge presented a framework for a city ministerial permit (beyond SB 35) for housing projects up to 500 units, excluding historic districts and historic structures. The city's process would not include prevailing wage or affordability requirements for projects under 11 units. Commissioners noted the importance of objective design standards and welcomed the exclusion of historic districts from the city's ministerial process. The item will return to Law and Legislation Committee and then to public hearings.
- Item 5: Sacramento Valley Station Master Plan Progress Update – Greg Taylor presented an update on the master plan, focusing on the proposed bus and mobility center to be built by 2023. The plan now aligns the new concourse on-axis with the historic station, creates a direct pedestrian plaza, and integrates a light rail connection. The mobility center will include 18 bus bays, a bike hub, EV charging, and restrooms. The design emphasizes transparency, carbon-sequestering materials, and biophilic elements. Commissioners praised the improved alignment and transparency. The commission will receive a fuller presentation in December 2019.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken on discussion items (all were review and comment).
- The commission provided feedback on the cemetery study, code amendments, and housing streamlining framework.
- Staff will incorporate comments into the evolving ordinances and plans.
- A special meeting on the Historic District Plans was scheduled for October 23, 2019, with a public hearing on November 20, 2019.
- The director noted the passage of Senate Bill 451 (state historic rehabilitation tax credit) and the hiring of new staff for long-range planning and housing.
- The commission requested regular updates on director-level development approvals and a future in-depth presentation on the Valley Station Master Plan.
Meeting Transcript
The agendas are in the back of the uh the back of the hall. There's also speaker slips. If anybody wishes to speak on an item, they should turn them in to the clerk before the I before we start on that item. Um basically we have tonight we've got a short consent calendar, it's one item, and then I think we have three or four um discussion items, which um I'll be asking for public comment on those. So if you wish to speak, turn in your speaker slips. So I guess with that I'll start. Would you like to go ahead and do the roll call Commissioner Bounds? Commissioner Carter. Commissioner Limon. Here, Commissioner Miller. Excused. Commissioner Vellania. And Chair Whitelum. Here. Quorum attained. Okay. Um the next item, which is the one item on the consent calendar. Item one is approval of the meeting minutes of September 18th 2019. So I'll entertain either comments or a motion on approving the minutes. Oh, I need to remember. Uh okay. I move that we approve the minutes. Second the motion. Okay, let's take the roll call, Carson. Commissioner Bounds. Yes. Commissioner Carter. Yes. Commissioner Liman. Yes. Commissioner Miller. Yes. Commissioner Vellania. Yes. And Chair Whitelem. Yes. Motion passes. Okay, the next item is item two on the discussion calendar. It's the historic city cemetery operations and assessment study. Um, so we'll be having a staff presentation and um it we'll be taking public comment after the staff presentation, and then the uh commission uh would comment. That's what I proposed to do. Okay. I share Whitelum and members of the commission. I'm going to provide a bit of an overview and introduce our guests today who are going to walk you through the staff report. So we have Gary Haydn who's standing at the podium from uh parks and recreation, otherwise known as youth community enrichment, youth parks and community enrichment. I'm still trying to get all those works. And we have our new cemetery manager, Andrew McVicar, who is showing Gary at the podum podium, and uh the other two representatives they will be walking you through uh the bulk of the discussion this evening. I wanted to provide uh kind of a brief overview to kind of set the uh tone and the framework for our discussion this evening. Uh so the building block, the original building block for this effort was the 2007 master plan that was developed. It provided an analytical framework for addressing uh the long-term preservation issues connected with the cemetery, and it became basically the foundation for the operations and maintenance study that was completed several months ago.
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