Tempe Development Review Commission Regular Meeting - July 23, 2024
STREAMING COPY IN PREPARATION — RECORDING AVAILABLE FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE
Tempe Development Review Commission Regular Meeting - July 23, 2024
The Development Review Commission met on July 23, 2024, at 6:00 PM to consider a consent agenda, a public hearing for a second-story addition at the Lee Residence, and updates from staff. The meeting began with a study session to review the agenda, followed by the regular meeting. The consent agenda was approved unanimously, and the Lee Residence request was approved with additional conditions by a 6-1 vote.
Consent Calendar
- Item 2 (48th and Alameda West): Approved unanimously as part of the consent agenda. This item corrected incorrect language in conditions of approval from February 27, 2024.
- Item 5 (Healing Tree Collective): Approved unanimously as part of the consent agenda. This was a request for a use permit to allow a massage establishment.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Arthur Nunez (east neighbor, Mesa resident): Expressed concerns about privacy from second-story windows looking into his backyard with a pool, and potential shadowing of solar panels on his house.
- Daryl Davis (San Diego, brother of neighbor Stephanie Donahue): Opposed the current design, arguing that the upper-level massing (975 sq ft addition on a ~1,900 sq ft footprint) is out of scale with the neighborhood's single-story and smaller two-story homes. Suggested a basement or smaller upper level to match bulk and scale.
- Stephanie Donahue (west neighbor, 317 East Carter Drive): Opposed the design, citing privacy impacts from south-facing windows, potential devaluation of her property, concerns about the house being used for rentals due to proximity to ASU, and negative impacts on solar panel viability. She noted that the house is excessively large with five bedrooms and bathrooms.
Discussion Items
- Lee Residence (Item 3): The applicant, architect Katie James and homeowner Daniel Lee, requested a use permit for a 975 sq ft second-story addition at 323 East Carter Drive. The proposal included converting a carport to a garage, adding a master bedroom, great room, and reconfiguring the first floor. Staff recommended approval subject to standard and unique conditions, including a pitched roof to match neighborhood character, cement board lap siding, frosted film on east- and south-facing second-story windows, and architectural relief on east and west elevations. Six public comments in opposition were received. Commissioner Forte noted the house would be 3,500 sq ft, far exceeding the typical 1,500-2,500 sq ft in the neighborhood, and opposed the project. Commissioner Spears supported it, noting the general plan encourages family spaces and that staff had addressed concerns. Commissioner Tom discussed design details and the applicant's agreement to modify the roof pitch and window placement.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Agenda: Approved unanimously (7-0).
- Lee Residence (PL240139): Approved 6-1, with Commissioner Forte opposed. The motion included the additional conditions presented by staff at the meeting: (1) pitched roof similar to other two-story homes; (2) architectural-grade asphalt shingles; (3) cement board lap siding on the east and west elevations; (4) frosted film on second-story windows facing south and east; (5) architectural relief on at least 50% of the east and west elevations; (6) applicant to work with adjacent neighbors to ensure structural integrity.
- Item 4 (postponed): Postponed to August 13, 2024.
- Staff Announcements: The city is preparing an ADU ordinance update with a public draft by the first week of August, to be reviewed by the commission in late August for council adoption by the end of the year.
- Future Meetings: Regular meetings on August 13 and August 27, 2024; the August 13 study session will include an update on the Character Area Six plan.
Meeting Transcript
Can you hear me? Oh, there we are. Okay, thank you. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the development review commission study session. Today is July 23rd, 2024. Um our agenda this evening is a review of our regular meeting agenda for tonight. Project updates and review of past and future applications of staff. Um just to make one note, we do have a new commissioner with us tonight. Um Stefan Richter. So welcome. Um thank you all for being here another year. I think it starts a new year for us all. But welcome to Stefan. Um questions, feel free to always speak up. Um there's a button on here with a mouth with um little things coming out of it, the that's how you talk and then you just hit that again to turn it off. Yes. Um yeah, I I would always hit the wrong button when I first started in here, so um I'm sure yeah. I can work this now, so I'm chair. Um first up on our agenda for the regular meeting is consideration of meeting minutes from the study session and regular meeting of June twenty-fifth, twenty twenty-four. Were there any comments on that or questions? Everything looked good. Okay. Um so we'll hear um we'll hear that one. Well, we won't hear that one. We'll have uh a motion for that one. Um and then item number two is um forty-eighth and alamedo West. Uh review modification request modification to approved development plan review. Um seems there were some um there was some incorrect language included in the conditions of approval from February twenty-seventh of this year. And this is to correct this item is to correct those um uh errors. So were there questions um for staff on this one discussion? Okay, um so I I should explain this a little better. So we'll we'll typically and I know you've been to DRC meetings before, but um typically we'll discuss items and then if there's no um need to hear them, then we'll we'll add them to a consent agenda, which will be voted on in the beginning of the regular meeting. Um so if we're everyone's okay with that one, we'll add that one to the consent agenda. Okay, we'll have that one on consent. Um item number three is Lee residents. So we've gotten a few uh public comments. I understand there's a few people wishing to speak uh virtually tonight on this one. Um and then if anybody shows up in person to speak, we're happy to hear them, but we will be hearing this one. There's also um on in front of you a few modifications to the conditions of approval. And um Michelle, you were gonna go through those? Um we can go through them now or we can go through them at the hearing, but they're just proposed conditions of approval to address the neighbor concerns that we received. So we're hoping that that they do that, um, address those concerns. We went through them in detail with the applicant and his uh architect earlier today, and they are in agreement with all the conditions. You'll also see um an image on there that shows a proposed change in the roof line, and we can go into all of the specifics um about those design changes and the conditions at the hearing. Okay. Um were there any questions on this one? Um procedurally or anything that um we want to do during study session. No. Okay.
openpublica.com