Right.

Good morning.

We are calling to order the planning director's hearing of April 1st, 2026.

My name is Jared Ferguson, and I am the hearing officer for today's agenda on behalf of and delegated by the director of planning, building and code enforcement, Christopher Burton.

This meeting is being held via Zoom conference call.

Members of the public may participate by following the instructions listed on page two of the agenda.

If you would like to provide public comment, you have two methods to do so.

One for participants who joined electronically and have audio input available on their computer or smartphone.

They can use the raised hand feature in Zoom during the agenda item they would like to speak to or click star nine on their phone.

Remember to keep your raise hand feature on until planning support staff identify your turn to speak.

Two, during the meeting, please call 408 535 8517 or email planning support staff at San Jose CA.gov and identify your name that is listed on your Zoom, your phone number that you'll call into Zoom with, and what item or items you would like to comment on.

All members of the public will remain on mute until the individual identifies they would like to speak and they are unmuted.

Planning support staff will identify you by name when it is your turn to speak.

At that time, you'll be unmuted and can provide comment for the allotted time.

If you exceed your allotted time, you may be muted so we can move on to the next speaker.

Please note the following.

Two, for those items on the consent calendar, I will ask if anyone wishes to speak on that item.

If a separate discussion is warranted, I will move the item to the public hearing portion of the agenda.

If a separate discussion is not needed, the item will remain on the consent calendar for approval.

For those items listed under public hearing, I will ask support staff to provide a brief report.

The applicant or the representative who wishes to speak on the item will have up to five minutes to speak and should identify themselves by stating their name for the record.

After the applicant or representative has spoken, any member of the public who wishes to speak on the item may provide testimony up to two minutes per speaker, either for or against the project.

All members of the public should identify their name for the record, although it is not required.

Following comments from the public, the applicant may make additional remarks for up to five minutes.

I will close the public hearing and I may ask staff to answer questions, respond to comments I made by the comments made by the applicant or the public, or further discuss the item.

I will then take action on the item.

If you challenge these land use decisions in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at this public hearing or in written correspondence delivered to the city at or prior to the public hearing.

The planning director's actions on agenda items will be final when the permit is signed and mailed unless the permit or the environmental clearance determination is appealed.

The planning director's actions on the permits are appealable in accordance with the requirements of Title 20 of the municipal code, the zoning ordinance.

The planning director's actions on the environmental review for the permits under the California Environmental Quality Act CEQA are separately appealable in accordance with the requirements of Title 21 of the municipal code, the environmental clearance ordinance.

Before we begin, I want to remind you, remind members of the public to follow our code of conduct at meetings.

This includes commenting on the specific agenda item only.

Public speakers will not engage in a conversation with the hearing officer or staff.

The hearing officer, staff, and the public are expected to refrain from abusive language.

Repealed failure to comply with the code of conduct, which will discourage disturb, disrupt, or impede the orderly conduct of this meeting, may result in removal from the meeting.

This meeting of the meeting of the director, director's hearing will now come to order.

Okay, so to our agenda.

So we will move directly into our consent calendar.

So as a reminder, um, there will be no separate discussion of individual consent calendar items as they're considered to be routine and will be considered in one action unless an item is moved from the public or to the public hearing calendar for a separate discussion by the hearing officer.

So the first item we have is 3A, which is TE20-029 and ER26-003.

This is a vesting tentative map extension to allow a 24-month extension of a previously approved vesting tentative map to allow the reconfiguration of seven lots into 11 lots and allow up to 58 residential condominium units, uh 41 townhouse units and 17 ADUs on approximately 1.87 gross acre site located at 2323 through 2320 2391 Moore Park Avenue located in Council District 6.

Um the CEQA is a determination of consistency with the Mount Park Avenue multifamily residential project initial study mitigated negative declaration.

The staff recommendation is to consider the determination of consistency with the Moore Park Avenue multifamily residential project initial study mitigated negative declaration in accordance with CEQA and approve a vest vesting tentative map extension.

Okay, are there any members of the public who wish to speak or request that this be moved to the public hearing portion of the agenda.

Okay, great idea.

I do not see any um hand raise.

So with that, we will uh I will go ahead and approve the consent calendar for today, which includes item 3a.

Okay, uh we will now move on to the public hearing.

Uh we have one item, item 4A, um, which is SP23-040 and ER23-238.

Um, this is a special use permit to allow the expansion of an existing daycare center from 24 students to 56 students to construct a new approximately 1,440 square foot modular building, remove two evergreen pear trees, one ordinance size and to exceed the noise threshold of 55 decibels at the adjacent property line by not more than 12 decibels, located on the west side of Lincoln Avenue, approximately 75 feet, uh southernly of the intersection of Lincoln Avenue and Lemon Lennon Way, 2221 Lincoln Avenue in Council District 6.

The CEQA is exempt pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15303 for new construction of small structures.

Um the project manager is Jason Lee.

Jason.

All right.

Good morning, hearing officer.

Uh, my name is Jason Lee, project manager for file number 23040 for the expansion of an existing child care center at 2021 Lincoln Avenue.

Uh, before I begin with my presentation, which I should actually share.

Um staff would like to make two changes to the conditions on the draft permit as coordinated with the applicant.

So change to condition sixa, uh days and hours of operation.

Um, and this condition will now read um the use shall be limited that shall be limited to operation between the hours of 7 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

Monday to Friday, unless a permit as applicable is approved by the city for other hours of operation.

This permit shall allow up to eight after hours or weekend events per year, limited to a one-hour extension of the operating hours, or B weekend events where children are present for not more than two hours between the hours of 9 a.m.

and 5 p.m.

The immediate neighboring residences to the north, west, and south of the project shall be notified at least one month in advance of any such event.

In all cases, the permittee shall encourage and facilitate as possible off-street parking at alternate locations.

An additional condition, which will be numbered 7C, will be added as follows.

Fencing.

The adjustment shall show an eight-foot high wood fence along the portions of the play area directly bordering residential uses.

Eight-foot high wood fencing along other portions of the property may be allowed through this adjustment, but is not required for issuance of building permits.

Staff would like to note that condition 6D, which would allow for wall changes if further noise attenuation is required or desired, is to remain despite added condition 7C.

Should the hearing officer approve the permit and these conditions, related changes will be made to portions of the permit analysis to reflect the updated permit conditions.

Alright.

So presentation for the project.

Staff notes that the project does have frontage on Lenin Way, but no pedestrian or vehicular access is proposed from that frontage.

This project proposes the expansion of the existing daycare center from 24 students to 56 students, the construction of a new 1440 foot 1440 square foot building, removal of two trees including one ordinance size, and exceeding the noise threshold of 55 decibels at the adjacent property line by not more than 12 decibels.

The project was evaluated with respect to the general plan, the municipal code, the citywide design guidelines, city council policies, and CEQA.

So the majority of the site has a general plan designation of neighborhood community commercial, with the pan handle towards Lennon Avenue having a designation of residential neighborhood.

Likewise, the zoning districts of the site are split between the CP commercial pedestrian and R22 family residence districts.

No buildings or structures are proposed within the residential neighborhood and R2 portion of the site, which is the little pan handle up here.

Staff has found that the project meets the requirement for use with the special use permit, setbacks, height, transportation demand management, and bicycle parking.

The project, as currently proposed, does not meet the lighting requirements due to the height of the light due to the height of the lighting, and should this permit be approved, the applicant must correct this prior to building permit issuance with an adjustment pursuant to condition 6A.

The project has also requested to increase the allowed noise 12 decibels to 67 decibels at the surrounding property lines, noting that this noise standard is L max, which is a maximum at a point in time, not sustained noise levels.

The provided noise study for the project found that the L max from noise from Lincoln Avenue is already 69 decibels at the rear of the daycare lot, so this allowance is less than the existing noise levels.

However, in response to concerns, additional condition 7C regarding construction of an eight-wood fence, eight-foot wood fence is proposed, and the draft permit also includes a condition 6D, which would allow a new fence or masonry wall up to 9 feet in height if additional noise attenuation is required or desired.

This project was also analyzed against City Council Policy 6-14, the child care policy.

This included local transportation analysis, which found that the proposed parking spaces are adequate for proposed operations, including the check-in check-out process and would not result in queuing on Lincoln Avenue.

The LTA recommends but does not require that the current parking spots be designated for parents.

However, the LTA does require a draft cond uh a condition in the draft permit, which is condition 6C, that if inbound vehicular cues extend beyond the available storage on site and onto Lincoln Avenue, the daycare must proactively adjust drop-off and pickup operations to prevent such queuing.

So basically, they would have to change their pickup operations or alter their pickup operations or you know, change the staff parking situation so that cars would not queue onto Lincoln.

And then additionally, pursuant to policy 6-14, the project is required to show a five-foot buffer adjacent to residential play areas in condition 6B.

Relatedly, this results in the project being granted one exception to the citywide design guidelines to allow for this buffer, the five-foot buffer, to the child care policy instead of a landscape buffer, as this allows for a safer play area for children.

The project otherwise complies with other key citywide design standards regarding solid waste collection, bicycle parking, and building articulation.

For CEQA, a class 3 exemption for the new construction of small structures was prepared for this project.

The new structure is a 1440 square foot structure in a commercial zoning district, and this exemption covers small commercial structures not exceeding 2500 square feet in floor area and not exceeding seeding 10,000 square feet on sites zoned for commercial uses in urbanized areas.

Staff does note that we also requested and evaluated a noise study and local transportation analysis as explained prior.

Staff followed council policy 6-30 for public outreach.

An on-site sign was posted on the project site frontage, and this hearing was noticed at a radius of 500 feet.

Therefore, at this time, a staff believes that all required findings for a special use permit can be made for uh with uh with the addition of the requirements of condition seven.

Staff recommends that the director consider the exemption for this project and approve the special use permit.

Thank you.

And um the applicant is Kathy Jellick, and um the representative is Stephanie DeVernel.

Okay, thanks, Jason.

Uh so we will now go um to the applicant or their representative for uh five minutes.

Go ahead and hi, this is Stephanie DeRenaal with Co Ed Architecture.

I'm not sure if Kathy is on the call.

Kathy has our or had her hand raised, so perfect.

Uh Kathy, yeah.

You should be able to unmute yourself now, Kathy.

All right, perfect.

Hi, um, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, great.

Okay, I'm Kathy Jellick, and I'm president of Action Day Schools, and I really appreciate the opportunities to speak today in support of our expansion at 2021 Lincoln Avenue.

Uh this project actually is very personal to me.

I was actually born and raised in Villa Glen and went to all the local public schools.

Um, my parents own the same home just down the street for 52 years.

Um, and I went to the Lincoln School, the Action Day, Lincoln School, right down the street as a child.

So this neighborhood is home to me.

Um it was a dream come true when the previous uh preschool owner, um Julie Reimer, uh, reached out to me to take over the business because she had faith in us through the years.

She cared deeply about the school and the families it served.

And she always felt there was room on the property to add more buildings and to serve more children.

That is what this project is really about.

We want we want to thoughtfully expand on the existing preschool and add infant care, which I know is such an important need for working families.

I want to share that I do not believe this expansion will not significantly impact the neighborhood with the addition of infants.

I don't expect noise to increase in a meaningful way, and I do not believe traffic will be significantly impacted either.

Uh we care deeply about the being good neighbors, and we take seriously the responsibility that comes with that in a growing neighborhood that means so much to me personally.

I respect respectfully asked for your support, and I want to thank you for your time and consideration.

Steph, do you have anything to add?

No.

Uh no, I think you summed up everything really well, Kathy.

Thanks.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Uh, we'll now move on to members of the public.

Um, so please raise your hand and um staff will unmute you, and you have uh two minutes.

Sam, go ahead and unmute your device.

Okay, she should be unmuted, but uh we don't hear you.

Uh maybe we can come back to Sam.

Okay, Emma Rock.

Uh, go ahead with an unmute your device.

Uh can you hear us now?

Yeah, I can hear you.

Oh, good.

This is uh Mike Rock.

I'm Emma's husband, and she's uh with me.

Um we just have uh a couple things to say.

Um we would uh first of all say thank you uh to Jason for doing such a wonderful job.

Uh he's been very responsive and uh very helpful in this project.

This is something we haven't gone through uh since Reimers uh started in 1991.

We've been in our house for uh uh almost 54 years.

So we're kind of experts, not a child care, but we're experts at living right next to a child care.

So we kind of know that.

We'd also like to thank Action Day for uh considering uh building the eight-foot fence.

Uh we learned that six feet of fence uh just as inadequate, even with 24 kids, and in our opinion.

Uh we would also like to thank the neighbors uh for their support talking to us and uh letting us know that uh their issues uh really come down to uh traffic uh on Lennon Way and parking.

Uh so uh we are not we're not in a position to either say we support or or not support this project, only uh to say that so long as the conditions are abided by uh we think uh we can uh you know be good neighbors just like Action Day wants to be.

And if sound or something else becomes a problem, we know who you we know Jason's uh phone number.

Um so long as uh any activity which might impact sight sound or smell are are manageable, uh I guess we're okay with it.

And beyond the confines of the project, specifically uh within the um perimeter, of course, our concerns are traffic and parking.

That's what our neighbors are also uh concerned with.

Um we've understand that uh uh Kathy's indicated that the proposal uh talks about expanding uh for infants.

Uh and we just want to make sure that someday uh if that is changed, and now we have 54 uh pre-kindergarten running around, we have an opportunity to come back and uh address that.

Anything else for you?

Other than that, uh thank you very much for your opportunity to comment.

Thank you.

Um let's try Sam again.

Please unmute your device.

I wonder if if maybe he's the phone caller ending at 877 potentially.

Or he's unmuted now.

Are you able to speak to see if the microphone on your device is muted?

Why don't we try the the um phone caller?

Perhaps that's okay.

Uh phone caller ending in 877.

Um you have to press star six unmute.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Good morning.

Oh, excellent.

Sorry, guys.

Uh, my name is Sam San Filippo, and I'm the managing partner of AMSNC L L C and we manage the adjacent retail establishment on the corner of Lincoln and the loan, which is a uh customer parking lot in a retail building.

And um our concerns with the expansion um is the use of our parking lot.

Um I get multiple complaints a year from our tenants that our parking lot is being used for pickup and delivery of um daycare students.

And when we approach parents, they get pretty upset with us.

Um they still want to use our parking lot.

And I have been out there um observing uh mainly in the afternoon, and uh traffic does seem to back up a little bit on Lincoln Avenue, and I've observed multiple times um you know parents uh using our parking lot for pickup of their children, which um you know affects our retail customers and their ability to service their customers.

So I do have an issue with uh additional traffic and additional use of our parking lot for the daycare.

Um, you know, we don't want our insurance is very high as it is, and uh you know, I'd be really concerned if something would happen in our parking lot, and then we would have a lawsuit against us.

So um I'm asking for an additional review with parking and traffic because we do not want our parking lot used for pickup and delivery of students.

Okay.

Thank you very much.

Um are there any other members of the public who would like to speak?

Please raise your hand or press star nine on your phone.

Mark.

Yeah, okay, good.

We can hear you.

Go ahead.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can.

This is Steve, yeah.

I live at 1152.

So this is Mark, but he's right here alongside me.

Um I just want to reiterate what happened probably 34 years ago.

We were promised that we would have a 25 person child care, and that childcare wanted the driveway on linen, and that's what we oppose.

We oppose that.

And what I think is real telling is that Karen Reimer said that we would she thinks that the expansion would always have been viable.

She wanted to have the expansion.

They said, no, we're gonna do a small mom and pop child care, and it won't impact you.

Well, yet during the special events, people park on both sides of our street, and you only can park on one side, block our driveways, albeit they do it maybe a couple of times a year, but still, we were promised they wouldn't park on our driveway.

And what things that should be considered is that we were promised that this would be a small mom and pop.

Now it's doubling its size.

You're taking out the playground area, and the next thing you're going to do is have a driveway on Lennon because that's the only viable alternative.

You heard Sam just speak that you park in everyone's driveway, you park in Lennon, you park in Malone, and we want the kids to be safe.

You're going to have more accidents.

I hope you did a speed survey on Lincoln Avenue.

They fly on Lincoln on R Street.

I live in the middle of the street, and it's a raceway.

One day or one time a day at least, people are going 50 miles an hour.

It's very unsafe on our street to have more children.

We don't want anyone hurt.

And I just feel that there's no assurances that one you're going to have another permit for residential.

This is our two.

So it needs to permit, and that you will expand and use.

Okay, thank you.

Um are there other members of the public who wish to speak?

Please raise your hand at this time.

Okay, I I don't see any other hands.

Um, we'll now go back to the applicant or their representative if you wish to speak or respond, you you have uh five minutes.

Hi, this is Kathy.

Um first I I want to thank the neighborhood for their comments.

Um in regards to the uh parking at the adjacent liquor store in um dry cleaning.

Um this is the first I've been made aware of it.

Um I actually have my my husband right here as well.

Um just confirmed with them because I know he's been um in contact with Mr.

San Felipus.

This is the first I've been made aware of it, and uh we will certainly send out a notice to our staff, our our parents, and I know our staff are instructed not to park there.

They do have ample space.

Um our staff actually parks um at our other facility um down the way.

Um and we have plenty of parking and turnaround spaces.

Um and in the case that there is a backup, we do have staff that will be available to do a just a drop-off zone and pick up.

Um so again, thank you for alerting us to that um because we weren't aware, but we will certainly um be on top of that, send out notices and also um have staff nearby to survey that.

Um and in regards to a driveway on Lenin, we have we have in our plans, there's no um there's no plans to have a driveway.

Um we have we've done the traffic study, we have um a turn up a turnaround in the um in our current driveway, so that that won't be needed.

Steph, do you have anything else to add Stephanie?

Stephanie, you're unmuted.

There we go.

Um no, Kathy, I think that you covered everything.

Um and I think that the plans, you know, as you said, they don't include a driveway to London, and that is not something that was considered.

So um and the operational stuff is is more like a school um issue, but I think that you address that well.

And knowing you, I'm sure that you will follow up and um make sure that parents are aware that that isn't when is acceptable.

Okay, thank you both.

Okay.

Okay, so um with that, I um will uh close the um close the public hearing portion um of the hearing.

Um I just wanted to go back to staff.

Um Jason, if you had anything you wanted to respond to from the public comment or from the applicant.

Yeah, um, I think uh just two uh quick thing about what we can and cannot make the applicant come back for in the future.

So um right now the operations plan does actually it's actually for TK pre-K children.

Um ultimately the city is going to approve the number of students.

We are not approving, and we are not able to say what age group that is.

That approval is with the state.

So if they are approved for 56 students, they're approved for 56 students, whether it be a mix between infants and children or children, you know, or pre-K children and infants or infants and children.

Um the other thing is that if they ever want to come back for a driveway on Lenin, they would have to come back for another permit because that would change the circulation on the site.

That's not a staff level review that would have to go back to that would have to go back to hearing and it would need to be approved at hearing.

So um it's not something they can just say, oh yeah, we're gonna add a driveway on Lenin now.

That's that's not how it works.

Um I am noting for the record that I received an email during the hearing from Stephen Yupp asking for denial of the permit because there are no promised covenants that there will never be a driveway on Lenin Way and requesting to move the building along the back fence to block the possible access of a driveway.

Um I think like I said, the only thing we can really promise is that this project right now um is not requesting a driveway.

And if they ever did request a driveway on Lennon, they would have to come back through the process.

Moving the proposed building along the back fence, this is a child care center that would given the small width of the panhandle, uh that likely would not uh meet fire code.

So that's I don't believe that is something we can request.

So I just wanted to read that into the record and let you know that we did get that emailed during the hearing.

And just to further clarify, too, it would require an additional permit, and then we would likely do we'd request another LTA local transportation analysis as well, right?

As a part of that, right?

The for a driveway, yeah, because it would change the circulation.

So that is correct.

We would need at least another LTA, yes.

Okay.

Okay.

Um and did you want to talk speak to the the parking as well?

I know that was mentioned.

Yeah, I I I mean I I think as I said off the top, we we are putting in conditions so that if you know, and it sounds like Action Day has a plan already.

If we are um spilling onto Lincoln to speed up drop-off and pickup to prevent queuing on Lincoln.

Um regarding parking on adjacent sites, including the both the commercial site and the residential site.

Um they uh both the commercial site and the residential site, um uh residential driveways.

I I think that's something ultimately that's private property.

And if they don't have permission to park there, that's something that ultimately property owners can take private action against if people are there.

And and I think, you know, it sounds like Kathy is will send a notice out to all parents saying, at least current parents, and and in the future as well, I hope, to not do that because they're not allowed to do that.

Ultimately, you know, there are special events on site.

Um the project is approved to continue doing some special events uh on evenings and weekends and a limited number.

Um and you know, ultimately we are encouraging you know action day to please try to arrange alternate parking.

But I think as everyone knows, um you can only control other people so far and ultimately, you know, a public street is a public street.

Um regarding Lenin, just generally, I think there are quite a few existing conditions on that street regarding speeding, regarding parking on the side of the street that's supposed to be red curved.

Um I would reach out to, you know, those are existing conditions.

They are happening whether or not this project is approved.

Um, I would contact, you know, the council district office and the department of transportation um regarding those concerns.

Sorry, I have one more email received just now asking guarantees about infants only.

As I explained, we are approving the number of children only.

The state um their state permit will determine what the ages of the children is, and they can change that with the state without coming back through the city.

We are only approving the number.

Thank you.

Right.

Thanks, Jason.

Okay.

Um thank you all.

I'll move um to deliberate on this permit.

Um, thanks to Jason and the applicant and those of you um speaking today as a part of public comment.

Um I understand that these are always um, you know, challenging um cases when we're dealing with daycares in schools.

Um, I personally um live across the street from an elementary school.

Um, so I understand the the challenges um related to pickup and and drop off uh at a school um in those times of days and can be hectic um in front of my house.

Um so I I understand where you're coming from.

But these types of uses, daycares, especially schools as well, they're it's important for them to be embedded or near our neighborhoods.

That's typically what our general plan in land use considers important.

We want to have these types of uses near where families are living and near where kids are.

So, you know, if it's possible to encourage walking, it you know, it can happen that way.

Um so that parents don't have to travel far, even if they are using a car to get to uh the daycare so that it's in their neighborhood.

Um I understand concerns around sound.

Um, you know, it's uh appreciated that uh the applicant and um were willing to take on some additional conditions to help mitigate the noise levels further with the fencing.

Um, I would I would encourage the daycare center to um you know communicate as they've offered with the adjacent property owner.

Um I'm sure um if either uh if either party reaches out to Jason, he could help connect you so that there's a future line of communication should the uh challenges uh occur in the future.

Um but like I said, it's you know, these uh generally throughout the city, um, daycare uses and daycares are very important.

Um and there's often not enough of these types of facilities as well to offer the the child care um for families.

So um, and as Jason said, we we cannot um our our purview for this land use action is um related to the number of students or children and not um not around the ages uh that's that's around that that comes from from state licensing.

Um with that and and given all those things, uh I will go ahead and approve um SP 23-040 and ER23-238, which is the um special use permit um to allow the expansion of an existing daycare center from 24 to 56 students to construct a new 1,440 square foot modular building, um, remove two evergreen pear trees and to exceed the noise threshold of 55 decibels at the adjacent property line by no more than 12 decibels.

Um and this is at 2021 Lincoln Avenue in Council District 6 and approve those additional conditions that uh Jason uh read into the record earlier via his presentation.

Um thank you, all of those of you who who came out to attend um this meeting.

Um and with that, that concludes uh the planning director's hearing for April 1st, 2026.

Thank you very much.