So let me know when to go.

Go.

Okay.

Well, welcome to this special meeting of the design review commission October 22nd, 2025.

May we do a roll call, please?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioner Case.

Here.

Commissioner Riley.

Here.

Chair Newsom.

I am here.

Vice Chair Basting is on vacation and she has phoned in or absence of many weeks ago.

And so, but we have a quorum.

Great.

Okay, so moving on to the consent calendar.

Um, it looks like we have one item on the consent calendar, which is the adoption of the 2026 council or commission and council calendar.

Um, any discussion about that?

Okay.

So we just take a roll call vote then.

Can we make a motion to adopt it?

How about that?

Yes.

Yes.

We'll make a motion to adopt it.

Oh, second.

Okay.

Okay.

Commissioner Case.

Yes.

Commissioner Riley?

Yes.

Chair Newsome.

Yes.

Motion carries.

Okay.

And I don't believe there's any other items to pull onto the consent calendar, so we'll just move on to public communications.

This portion of public communications is for items not on the agenda.

Under the Brown Act.

Commission cannot act on items raised during public communications but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed, request clarification or refer items to staff.

Do we have any public communication beyond uh what's going to be in the public hearing?

No cards.

Okay.

We'll move on.

So before we go to the public hearing, um, let's have a disclosure of expartia communication.

Has anybody contacted either of you regarding the public hearing?

No, no.

So we're gonna move on to the public hearing.

And I believe there's one item.

And it's the Porsche dealership.

And it looks like staff has a presentation, so let's go ahead.

Good evening, Commissioners.

Simmer Gill, senior planner with the city.

We are here tonight to uh gather design review commission's feedback on the proposed Porsche dealership and service center that will be located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and North Main Street.

The applicant uh Steven Scanlon, along with his team, um, is here tonight, as am I, to answer any questions that you may have after the presentation.

And just to quickly orient you with the site, um, it does consist of three parcels that will be merged for project construction and uh the site is zone service commercial, which uh does allow automobile dealerships that are permitted by right, and a design review is required for the construction of a new building.

Uh the existing buildings on site will be demolished for project construction, and the surrounding area consists primarily of commercial and retail uses, and there are residential uses to the west along second Ave uh that leads to Barton Court.

And here's just a closer look at uh the buildings on site, and here's some site photographs.

Um, as you know, the Mass Ays Bar and Grill is fronting North Main and several other smaller buildings.

And here's the building at the corner of 2nd Ave in North Main, and there's some more buildings tucked away in the back of the build back of the site.

So moving on into the uh project request tonight is um the demolition of all the existing buildings on um all three parcels, and that will be to construct the new three-level auto dealership that will offer vehicle sales and service.

The site modifications include uh frontage improvements, uh which is new sidewalks or replacement of the existing sidewalk on North Main, and new public uh walkways uh within the uh building.

And the project also proposes tree removals, new landscaping, as well as new signage.

So tonight the design review commission's role is to provide a study session, so really just to provide that initial feedback on the building design as well as the signage and the other associated entitlements, and provide a recommendation to the planning commission.

So the planning commission could then consider the design review, the signage and the tree removals, as well as the planning commission will then review that and make a recommendation to council for the proposed plan development rezone, which that both of these hearings will be scheduled at a later time.

Here is the existing condition of the site.

Here's the proposed layout.

Access will be provided along a 26 feet wide drive aisle that leads from both second AV and North Main.

As that is the closest to residential properties.

The building is set approximately 30 feet, if not more, from that from that property.

And here's just a closer look at the building access, the main entry which leads into that showroom is along the core at the corner of North Main and 2nd Ave.

And then if a customer is pulling up on 2nd Avenue, then they can go into that customer, the service customer arrival area and drop their vehicles there for repairs.

And the remaining, the remaining accesses are all for employees only.

So customer access is only through that main entry into the showroom or for their vehicles to be dropped off for service.

And to the bottom left, you see that rooftop parking.

There's a ramp that leads up to the rooftop parking, and that is again for inventory vehicle parking only and employee access only.

And the same goes for the service service shops access as well as the parse delivery.

And then on North Main, there, as you access from North Main, there's a lower level garage entry into the partial basement again for employee use only, and that stores the inventory vehicles.

Here's just a closer look at that floor plan.

It's the partial basement is located beneath the main showroom and the vehicle repair area.

There are 87 vehicles that could be stored there for inventory, as well as employee parking if needed, and other support functions such as bicycle parking, parts storage, and car washes.

And here is the main first floor, which is broken up into three areas: the customer showroom and the service shop, which has 22 service base, as well as associated support spaces such as offices, there's restrooms and elevators and stairs that lead up to the other floor.

And then here is the second floor.

Again, a partial open air roof design.

There is a secondary showroom with customer amenities as well as more office space, as well as 76 inventory spaces, again for inventory parking only.

I did want to point out that as part of this PD, it is required in the MUNICOD that the PD complies with the regulations and provisions of the general plan or any other specific plan.

So the it does provide them that flexibility to make minor deviations, but the project, the dealership is meeting the intent of the zone, which is the service commercial zone that allows auto sales and services.

And the service commercial zone allows a 0.3 FAR that is permitted for the site, floor area ratio, and here I have taken that language straight out of the Walnut Creek municipal code, which really defines what floor area ratio is.

So the PD tonight is asking for flexibility to exclude additional accessory areas or support spaces that are not customer occupied or customer oriented.

And the proposed PD will then redefine FAR excluding these following following areas.

The PD will also calculate when calculating FAR will use the gross lot area to calculate the FAR on site.

Again, a little different from the way our current MUNICOD reads.

And here is just a layout of all three floors, and there's the FAR legend, which basically the peach area that you see is the area that's included into the FAR, which is again the customer facing spaces, or for the use of customers, which is to repair or service their vehicles.

So the service bays are being included as well as the showroom areas.

And all of the excluded areas are in pink.

So why are we doing this?

I did want to point out that older dealerships consisted of detached single story buildings that are spread across larger lots with separate areas for all different operations.

And I provided a photo below to the left of the existing dealership that's further south on North Main Street that's currently there now.

And as you can see, all of the different functions are broken up or into separate areas.

And the repair shop has expanded across the street, where I said the extra space shop spare shop space, because the existing site is maxed out, there's no room left for the necessary operations of the business.

So the modern dealership design has shifted because it's become more multi-level and it integrates all of the operations into one single building, where a large portion of those areas are service related areas and not really customer occupiable space, but because it's within the building, it then becomes floor area per our current definition in the MUNI code.

And so again, it it is a code is a bit dated.

It's built for single-story service style parking dealerships as you see below, and several other ones in Walnut Creek.

So the PD tonight is requested so it could provide that flexibility to exclude only the support areas from the FAR, really to distinguish between what's functional space, what's accessory space versus customer space.3 FAR intent, and the PD will also reflect that customer facing space and recognize today's vertical design for dealerships, which does consolidate everything into one building.

The maximum height allowed is 30 feet on the site.

As mentioned earlier, there is a bit of a slope on this site.

The grades range from 124 feet to 135.

The highest slope that you see occurs on the southwest corner, which is at 100 135 feet, and the steep slope does drive the height variation.

If you see on that photo, too, the masses site is around 124 feet.

So there's a bit of a higher slope on this end near second AV.

So the current code measures height from the lowest grade.

So it is reading taller on that second avenue site because of that reason, but the mass is unchanged.

And here is the proposed PD, which will define base elevation as the highest existing grade on site.

And this exhibit here does depict that where we would take that measurement, which is 135 feet, where and then we would measure uniformly to the top to meet that 30 foot cap that still applies.

So it's going to extend up to 165 feet to the top of the parrot pit.

And this approach does allow a fair measurement on a slope site.

So we're not adding any additional height to this project.

And a similar approach has been used, applied for three other projects in Walnut Creek that had similarly sloped sites as well.

So the PDE is essentially redefining or defining the base elevation as the highest existing grade on site to really better represent the building's actual perceived height around the adjoining properties.

And here are the building elevations.

This is the elevation facing North Main Street, and listed here are the materials that are proposed.

We also have the actual material board, should you want to have a closer look.

However, it does consist of a mix of black gray ribbed metal panels, silver metal panels, as well as a white aluminum panel that'll be applied vertically next to the showroom entrance doors.

And dark gray stucco will also be applied to the rear and side elevations.

And here is the elevation that's facing 2nd Avenue.

And what you see at the bottom, the rendering is really is taken from that west corner angle because here you see the ramp in relation to the service center building side of the elevation.

Here is the west rear facade that'll be facing the residential or towards Barton Court.

And here are some renderings.

And if removed, the applicant will be required to pay into the trees, into the city's tree fund, the tree value, the valuation of all of these trees combined, which will then be used to plant highly protected trees elsewhere in the city.

And here is the on to the north and west, what you see are the 14 off-site neighboring trees.

All of those will be protected in place during construction.

I also wanted to point out the towards the north, which is the upper portion where by the canal, I bubbled that in blue because that initially that tree was being removed.

I believe it was a black walnut.

I believe it's a black walnut, but it was being removed, but the applicant is going to protect that as part of this project, and that that is why it went from 13, and my staff report, it says 13 off-site tree, that's the 14th tree.

And here is the landscaping plan.

12 street trees are proposed that range in size from 24 to 36 inch box and a mix of species.

Seven on site 15 gallon trees are also proposed, as well as five gallon shrubs and a mix of five-gallon shrubs and ground cover will be spread across across the site.

And what you see here is the proposed steel fence that will be installed along the north property line and returned to the west corner property line, and then the yellow highlighted portion is the proposed eight-foot tall split face CMU wall that'll be installed.

Now moving on into the signage, the applicant is proposing two wall signs, two identical wall signs, and they measure 91 square feet.

However, the one that's uh facing North Main Street is on a backer panel because of the ribbed metal system of the building facade.

There's not a flat surface, so they're using the panel to create a flat surface.

And the other one is identical without the backer panel facing North Main Street.

Sorry, second avenue.

And the total sign area with the two monument signs included will be 274 square feet.

The sign a sign exception is required because in the city sign ordinance, 200 square feet is allowed for any uh commercial uh single tenant in a building.

And here is a look at the primary monument sign, it's 24 square feet in size, well below what is allowed for auto dealers in the sign ordinance, which uh you could have up to a maximum of 74 square feet for um it's for purpose of identification and visibility, but they're proposing a 24 square foot sign, and uh 14 square foot service sign.

This essentially acts as wayfinding because it's going to be located further into the project site closer to the uh repair area.

And um now moving into the parking.

Uh 49 surface parking stalls are provided, uh, primarily for customers and vehicle uh display and then um in the basement there's additional uh stalls, I believe 87 and uh 76 on the roof.

Again, these are for inventory or employee parking only.

The surface parking is dedicated for customer parking.

But I also wanted to for the record point out that under assembly bill AB 2097, this project is within a half a portion.

Uh so the way the bill reads is even if a portion of the site of the project site is within that half mile radius from in this case the Pleasant Hill Barge Station, it qualifies to be reviewed under AB 2097, which exempts the parking requirement.

Um, however, in this case, the applicant is providing parking.

So, just wanted to point that out.

And uh this project does meet the city's design review standards and guidelines.

Um a completed uh design checklist has been provided to you by the applicant showing compliance.

There are there's one guideline and one standard that hasn't been met.

Um, one is that our guideline requires that display parking be covered or integrated with a building element if it's fronting a street.

In this case, uh it is fronting North Main.

There's I believe 13 display parking spaces that but it won't be covered because that's part of the Porsche branding.

Uh they they do have the covered showroom inside that has more vehicles.

And um the other one is a standard, which requires for any new building parking needs to be at the side or rear or within a structure.

Um the parking, the customer parking is on the surface level, it's located along the primary frontage.

But um both of these um would need to be waived by the planning commission as part of their consideration.

But I believe the second one um really makes sense because under the building code uh accessibility requirements, 88 accessible stalls should be located as close as possible to the entrance of the building.

Um, so if this was at the back or rear, they would have to come all the way around to the front to access uh the showroom.

And uh so staff tonight is requesting DRC to comment on the proposed building design as well as confirm compliance with the city's design standards and um staff's recommendation again is to really get uh have the DRC review and comment on the following topics that are listed here as well as provide a uh positive recommendation to the planning commission to move this project forward and uh that is all I have for my presentation I believe the applicants team also has a presentation for you tonight and for the record uh the city did receive two letters um uh from neighboring properties related to this project and I believe a copy of those letters have been provided to you as well as additional copies have been placed in the back for the public.

Thank you.

Um any questions for me.

Not so much for you but maybe for the applicant the applicant will come up for his presentation.

So yeah I assume the applicant has a presentation.

So let's go ahead.

Good.

Thank you.

Go ahead and introduce yourself of course you know the you know the drill.

I'm learning it.

Good evening.

Um thank you for having us here.

I I'm Steven Scanlon I represent uh Porsche Walnut Creek as the applicant and I have with me um James Spence and our from camp and camp to also uh answer any questions that you may have um I want to hit some high points in in the new urban dealership vernacular um this is sort of this this building is sort of a prototype in in similar fashion or it's sort of a prototype in that we've integrated everything into the building things that would normally be outside the building out in the footprint have been now brought into the building it's enclosed um we've we've shifted all that into external program to the internal uh also the new dealerships the demand for inventory is much less so we're able to shrink the footprint and provide a vertical inventory as opposed to having it out on seven acres which was the old style dealership um we've brought as I think Simon mentioned we've brought three buildings into one where the current dealership is located on on three in three different parcels um this dealership uh it's designed to the Porsche standards and it's really designed around the new sales and customer experience in the automotive world.

Most customers come and are 70% complete on their transaction before they actually get to the dealership and then when they come to the dealership it's usually about closing and maybe a test drive and the uh the actual service process unlike the sales process is uh much more valet and porter oriented so people come in drop off their car go to the waiting room or or grab a rental car and then um the staff moves the cars around internally one of the nice things about this dealership is that everything is computerized.

So when you bring your car in it it it comes in it's quickly assessed it's all by appointment there's no queuing um there's no vertical there's no stacking out in the street everything is inside the building it won't even it won't even be in the parking lot um what we like about what we what we think is a impactful um we will be reducing traffic on the street the dealership where it's currently located on those three building sites is now being consolidated and all of that movement will be internalized so we won't be having um vehicle traffic on on Main Street or for that matter second.

The dealership's being relocated so what's already in Walnut Creek for traffic generated by Porsche is just moving a quarter mile away.

So we we don't believe we're gonna be adding any traffic to it.

In fact, we think we'll be reducing it because of the internal capture.

The uh because there'll be less traffic um we expect that the air quality will be reduced will be improved and there'll be less emissions.

Everything is put in all of the uh all of the emissions inside the building are captured and filtered.

So we won't be dumping that out into the into the environment.

The building is fully enclosed, and it has STC rated assemblies, so there'll be very little noise, if any, out into the out into the public.

And we're particularly respectful of the adjacent residential neighbor, so we built a sound wall to help further mitigate that and where the dealership is located.

It's above the residential, and then the sound wall steps up from there.

So the signature the acoustic footprint should be significantly reduced if there's any at all.

We've also moved the circulation between second, the majority of the circulation is between second and the building and north main and the building, and most of the service circulation is north of the building.

We don't we have very little circulation on the west side.

It's only for moving cars in and out, and that's all done by the employees.

Um all the lights are shielded, and all of the sign and lighting are operated in fixed hours.

So it comes on in the morning and goes off at night.

So there'll be very little light spill into the adjacent residential community.

Um water, we've already completed the stormwater hydro modification and filtration design, and we're compliant, so we won't be dumping into the street.

We go directly into storm.

Good evening, everyone.

Uh, my name is James Spence.

I'm with Ginsler.

I'm one of the architects on this project.

Um I'd like to start by thanking the commission for uh carving out the special session for us tonight.

I know it's not your regularly scheduled night, so we do appreciate your time and um fair warning.

I will probably end up pronouncing at Porsche, which I know uh makes me sound like that friend that just got back from the road abroad trip and pronounces things the weird way, but uh it's I'm gonna blame it on having to work with automotive dealers that much.

So um just apologizing for that ahead of time.

Um Steven have already done a great job kind of walking you through um the overview of our project.

I just wanted to run everybody else through uh more of the operation side, how the client is going to be um running um the business as well as what the customer journey looks like through that and then a few more specifics as far as the design is concerned.

So we have our site plan here.

Um what I wanted to start with was kind of an overview.

We do this is uh Porsche's new Gen 5 design.

Um so it's it's a couple of steps up from the current dealership that is a quarter mile down the road.

Um, like Steven said, we are uh effectively integrating and centralizing all of their program, three buildings worth currently of program into this one central building.

It's going to be a three-level building with uh multiple operations uh mainly servicing the showroom, sales, and then the service the shop.

So um the existing topography does uh grade down uh when you go north on the site, so our our design, our building design is kind of uh reflecting that, which is why we have those three levels, the third of which, the lower level, which is kind of what we call the deem the basement.

Um most of that will be covered on the west, south, and east sides.

It will start to reveal itself on the north side of the site.

It's fully revealed on the north side, but most of it will be um subterranean.

Um and then the uh as far as the rest of the program is concerned, we are like I said, taking a lot of that operation and moving it inside.

So we're helping to mitigate a lot of the noise that is generated from those types of programs.

So traditionally on a automotive site, you might see an exterior car wash, you might see detail bays that are covered with a canopy, you might see an external or sorry, an exterior oil and compressor storage, with just a lean to covering it.

All of those are going to be enveloped into our project, which will eliminate any kind of noise transmission around the uh the site and around the neighborhood.

We know that we are directly up against the neighborhood on our west side of the property line.

We want to be able to respect their you know be uh respectful neighbors and try and mitigate as much noise as possible.

So we are kind of taking all of that program moving inside.

As far as the customer journey is concerned, there are two approaches to the project that the customers have.

There's one where they drive their own car in to park and enter the sales building.

That's the one main entry to the southeast site of the building that Simmer pointed out earlier.

They can park on site.

We have ample on-site parking kind of along the south and west or east sides of the site, and then they enter through that main showroom entrance.

Or they can bring their car in to get serviced.

They would pull into the service drive, either pull on off of North Main Street and work their way around the site, or they could pull onto Second Avenue and then into the service drive.

Like Steven said, most of these are made by appointment, and the porters there are very quick to grab the cars once they're parked in the service drive and pull them either directly into the shop or they'll pull them out of the service drive and onto the roof or down to the lower level basement.

So there will be very little queuing.

Most of the time it will extend maybe to the covered part of the service drive, but it will it will never go out into the kind of the fire lane area that you see there.

So the turnover is very quick.

That is something that they are very focused on as far as the Fletcher Jones team is concerned.

So that's one.

So those are the two customer journey points and how they interact with the site.

We have tried our best to kind of separate the employee kind of circulation around the site from the customer.

So the while the customers might be using say the south and the east sides of the site, the customers are all going to be using the inventory and service vehicles around the west and the north sides of the site.

So they will be taking the vehicles from the service drive either directly into the shop or like I said, out and onto the parking deck on the third level or underneath the building into the basement.

They will be doing all of that through the entry points we have.

We only have one entry point into the shop that's on the west side of the building, and then we have the other entry into the shop, which is interior.

It's actually going to be from our service drive.

So all of the that one's going to be enclosed and there won't be any exterior exposure to the shop there.

And then another thing I wanted to touch on was the parts and vehicle delivery.

So they will have vehicles delivered to the site on the large trucks.

Those trucks will park on the north side of the site of the building, at which point they will unload the cars.

So this will be away from the customer interaction, customer circulation, and then same to do with the parts.

So the one area we have on the north side of the building will be our parts delivery where they will receive all the parts typically after hours, and then the truck will pull off the site onto North Main.

We also do have a trash enclosure in that same corner.

You can see a striped uh loading zone there.

So that's where we'll have our trash uh picked up, and then in that same corner, we do have our enclosed oil and compressor room.

They will have trucks that will come and park in that same area to unload all of the waste oil and take that off of the site.

So we've tried to centralize all of that operation in the same area of the site.

So another part of the site that I did want to focus on real quick is the sound wall on the west side of our property.

So, like I said, we want to be very aware and respect to the neighbors that we have on the west side.

Uh, we do have an eight-foot wall CMU CMU wall that's going to be painted the uh Porsche black that you see the ramps been painted as the sides of the ramp has been painted as well.

So the diagrams we have on the left side of the page there are kind of showing the relationship of that sound wall with the building as well as the neighboring sites to the left to the west of us.

Uh, you'll notice that those sites do grade just like ours do.

So towards the south of the site, we have about an eight to ten-foot difference between the neighboring site and ours, at which point that eight-foot wall would then start.

And then as you work your way north, that eight to ten feet becomes four, becomes two, becomes zero.

So it starts to level out, but we still will have that eight-foot wall blocking any kind of sound transmission that might be coming from from our site.

And then the diagram up top just kind of shows a quick elevation sketch.

The red would be the elevation of that wall as it steps down the site as it grades down.

And then the rendering is just an extra shot showing the relationship.

It's got the wall off there to the left and showing kind of that drive down and the relationship to the building on the right.

A couple of slides showing our photometrics.

So we are working with our lighting engineers to make sure that there is zero lighting spill.

We want to make sure we have zero-foot candles at our west and north property lines.

We will be implementing shielding, observing dark sky.

We will be having, like Steven said, timers on our lights, so that they are shut off at the right moments to respect the lighting regulations and these are just showing photometrics on the street with the new lightings, new lights being added.

The thing to point out on this page is kind of a lighting pole design that we're modifying for this project.

So it's the picture you can see there in the bottom right corner.

This is something we've implemented on other jobs with parking roof decks.

We just want to make sure that these lights are directed towards the parking, not towards anything else and away from the property lines.

So these are the lighting poles that we'll be implementing here on our parking roof deck as well.

We'll have some wall packs on the building side, which is on the south side of the parking deck, but around the rest of the perimeter on those parapets, we will have these shorter kind of light poles that are directed directly towards the inventory.

This is showing the FAR calculations in the regions that Zimmer touched on earlier, following that FAR.30.

The parking designations is something else we wanted to touch on.

So making sure that we have ample parking for our customers on the surface lot, and then obviously enough parking for the employees both on the service lot and in the basement level.

So just to walk you through the floor plans real quick, just to give you a brief overview of the program.

So this is our low lower level, the basement.

We have one main point of entry into this basement that's on the top right corner.

There is a small two-foot ramp that goes down into the lower level.

The vehicles will be brought down that way.

They have employees that can walk down that way as well.

We have parking mostly for inventory down here.

We do also have a few extra program elements.

We have four car washing stalls in the bottom left corner.

Just northeast of that, we have two detail bays, and then just to the right of that, we have a photo booth.

So, like I said, we're moving a lot of our program interior that would typically be exterior, and most of that's going to be underground.

The rest of the program up in the top right corner is going to be parts receiving, which will be loaded onto a parts lift and taken up to the main floor.

And then we have our oil and compressor room, a few electric uh electric panel rooms as well.

And then we are going to have an elevator that does come down to this level as well as an egress stair that you can see next to the car wash stalls as well.

And this is where we'll also have our bicycle parking.

This is our main floor.

So we have our two-story open atrium showroom there to the bottom left corner.

This is where most of the sales will occur.

We have a kind of uh we have two different cafe areas, one on the first floor, one on the second.

We'll have restrooms both on both on both floors as well.

Um, and then we have our service drive where our customers will pull their cars in.

The cars will then be portered into the shop afterwards, and the customers can walk directly into the service advisor area.

They can then walk through the merchandising area into the cafe.

We also have what we call an owner's collection room.

It's the new car delivery.

So this is where the customers will end up after purchasing their car.

They'll be walked through kind of the bells and whistles of all their car, how to operate everything.

They'll take that vehicle, they'll drive out the overhead door, and they will turn on to uh second avenue towards the intersection as they drive off with their new vehicle.

So that's kind of that that process there.

And then turning up to the shop, we have a total of 22 stalls in this shop.

And then north of that, we just have all of the program support for the shop.

So it's going to be parts, bins, tools, things of that nature, and then, of course, restrooms and break rooms for the text that will be working in that shop.

I think it's important to mention, like I said before, we only have one exterior entry into this shop.

It's the one there on the left side.

So that is facing the west side, but it is a high-speed overhead door, it's a Ritech.

So those things are up and down in a matter of seconds.

So when the cars drive in and out, there might be a little bit of sound that comes through, but for the most part, it's going to be shut for most of the day.

We are implementing the ST ample STC ratings for these walls so that all of the tools and everything happening within the shop is dampened as much as possible so that nothing will be kind of escaping the shop there, as far as sound is concerned.

And then we do have uh our stairs wrapped around our elevator.

Uh, that's the same elevator that goes down to the basement floor.

You can take that same elevator up to the mezzanine level or the second floor, level two.

Um, this is additional service or sorry, additional uh shop uh showroom space, additional sales.

Uh we do have a kind of uh intermediate certified pre-owned showroom, which is where you can see those six darker vehicles there in that box.

So that's going to be kind of interior showroom for customers to kind of walk around more cars without having to actually step outside just yet.

And then, of course, uh to the north of that we have our uh parking roof deck.

Um, like I said, we'll be um lighting that with those specifically designed poles.

Um we will have our um HVAC units on this roof deck as well that will be servicing the shop.

Those will be adequately screened with the um the same uh ribbed metal panel that that we have on our sample board there, so that all of that will be uh adequately screened.

We also have a gate, a security gate on the west side, just at the top of the ramp.

So that will be for security purposes.

It'll also be for screening purposes as well, just to screen any of the cars that you might be able to see when you're driving along second avenue.

Just a few uh pages touching on our signage.

So we do have uh two wall signs, yeah.

Yeah, so I'll go quickly through these monuments, and then the elevations just touching on the um the materiality, the finishes.

So we have the Porsche silver metal panel that's going to be wrapping the main showroom building, and then we have our Porsche gray, which is a kind of a very dark gray ribbed metal panel that's going to wrap around the shop area.

So that's going to be on part of the east side, most of the well, part of the north side, the other part is going to be a stucco that's painted black to match, and then that ribbed panel will also wrap its way around to the west side.

Um any other exposed uh kind of pre-cast will be have that same stucco uh that that's painted, painted that Porsche black, and then there will be uh uh a little bit of uh white accent metal panel um that's shown right next to the main entry door to the showroom.

And then to touch one more time on the fencing, it is a design master forte product, so it's it provides a little bit of screening, also uh uh anti-theft measures for climbing the fence, uh, but also kind of uh more of an elevated design for that for that fencing there to the north side of the site.

And then to wrap it up, just a few renderings.

So uh starting from the top left corner, we have the uh shot from second and main.

Um so this is the main uh shot of the building showing the showroom and the entry there to the right.

Uh we wrap ourselves around to the north main side.

Um we have a shot of the shop there, we will have glazing that goes into the shop, and then the bottom left corner we have uh our monument sign in front of the shop on north main, and then the bottom right corner just showing the ramp, uh, shot from North uh second avenue.

So uh I believe that's all I have.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks.

Do we have commissioner questions?

Um I had a question.

There was a comment in the um comments that we received that requested that there be a right hand only turn on second avenue.

Is that programming that could be considered?

I believe it is.

So just to clarify, no right turn.

No right turn.

I was gonna say I think they want to turn their opposite, right?

Everyone come this way.

No, the opposite of that.

I think we can I think that's totally um uh we can approach that with our wayfinding signage that we'll have on site.

Um so we can um certainly add the uh no right turn or left turn only, whichever verbage the the city would would approve of.

Okay, and then my other question was because there are some significant mature trees being taken out, and I realize there are limitations of the site, but is there any opportunity to put in like one more significant tree somewhere?

It's just a question.

So we do have, I mean, I I might um we we will be putting the street trees in along North Main and Second Avenue Um as far as a more um significant tree.

Um would we be looking at placing those in that area?

I know that we want to be respectful of the um kind of frontage there.

So um I think there might be an opportunity in the um the northeast corner, I believe, is where we'll have I think the most flexibility there.

One of one of the let me just jump in.

Yeah, sure.

One of the problems with the tree type, and we understand the significance, but like the city standard, the the trees are not listed for street trees in the city because of all the damage they do.

They're highly destructive to the hardscape foundations and all of that, underground utilities.

So what we'd like to do is is provide a fund and move them someplace where it's appropriate and they can be retained.

But I'm afraid that if we put them on the dealership, we'll run into the same thing in, you know, five to ten years where they're starting to destroy things and we we run into the same impacts that we're trying to avoid.

Okay.

Okay.

That's my question.

I had two questions.

One was very similar to Commissioner Case regarding the traffic flow on 2nd Avenue, um, respecting that left turn only request that the neighbors have made.

And just if you could do a little bit of clarification on what you see that entry that entrance being used for, um, I think that it would help the people in general kind of understand what what you see that as the main purpose of the entry point.

South the south entrance of second street.

Yeah.

Correct.

So um I personally believe that the well, the intent really will be that will be more of an exit for the cars coming out of the service drive and pulling into second avenue and towards the intersection.

So whether they're pulling their car out after it's been serviced of the service drive, or if they're pulling their car out of the uh new vehicle delivery space that I was touching on earlier, um, they will the shortest drive is to the second avenue curb cut.

So they will, I think instinctually go there and then turn towards the intersection to leave.

Um so I think the while the main point of entry for the customers will be on second, or sorry, North Main Street, um, we view second avenue as more of a secondary entry point just because there's not really any signage there.

We have the monument sign on North Main closer to that curb cut there, directing the customers to pull in.

So the curb cut on second avenue will serve more so as a point of vehicle egress out of the site and towards North Main and away from the building.

Right.

Thank you.

Um and the other thing that I was hoping you could give a little more detail on are the hours that the lights will be on.

I know that there's you talked a little bit about the shielding and the dark sky, but if you could just if you know for the record when those those lights will be on.

I can't tell you specifically what those hours will be.

Um I know that the the client is very open to you know the city's needs, and and if there are certain hours that we do need to follow, we can certainly um integrate those those standards for those timers.

Um unfortunately I I'm not uh very aware of of if they have a uh regular hours where they switch on and off versus their their operating hours.

Okay, thank you.

That's it.

I have a question for staff.

So we don't have an operational plan or conditional use permit that's part of this application, not required here.

Auto sales um and service is permitted by right.

Okay.

It's a design.

Right, that you said that.

Okay.

All right.

Um, yeah, I mean, I think the the one of the things going back to these comments is I mean, both comments that we we've seen, and I assume we're gonna hear in a few minutes, is basically barring test drives along second avenue, like bar like limiting traffic.

Is that something Porsche would be willing to agree to?

As in, so are we talking about directing the cars to North Main and not having the test drives on second, yeah.

On second.

Um my understanding is that second is is a bit of a dead end if if you turn into the neighborhood, correct?

So really?

Sorry?

It continues.

Okay, it continues, okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

I I misunderstood.

I am sorry.

Um, so what I so you when you turn on to 2nd Avenue, you're turning into a neighborhood.

Typically, test drives aren't aren't going through neighborhoods.

They typically like to bring them on to more uh main avenues.

So um it's it's not a Porsche requirement per se that they need to take their test drives into certain types of areas.

So if we have a um a stipulation that says these cars and any test drives out of the Porsche dealership need to go directly onto North Main Street and head north or south, that's completely agreeable.

Um we just I think logically it doesn't make a lot of sense for them to take the cars into the neighborhood.

Um that's typically not how they they operate those.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, okay, so then thanks for that explanation.

Um I think you you actually you've actually answered a lot of questions.

I mean, I think it maybe what I'd like to do is look at that west elevation a bit, and really we've talked a lot about the experience.

I want to talk about maybe what the neighbor's experience is.

So we have and you have some sections that show the relationship of the of the neighbor's land to the property.

Um I mean it's it looks like it's how much uphill do we think from from the neighbors?

So it depends on which part of the site you're on.

Um when you're on the northern part of the site, you're pretty much your level for the most part.

Um as you come down as you come south on the site, it goes from about zero to about eight or nine feet towards the south side of the west property line.

So, I mean, we've talked a lot about sound, but like visibility cutoff from the building, the the wall to a certain extent will block most of what you see of that building, right?

Um correct.

The the plan wouldn't allow the addition of trees.

It just isn't isn't enough room.

And that's I mean that's one of the I'm just that's one of the challenges with allowing a higher FAR is you just get higher density.

Um but I mean it's you guys are well set back, so I think not much you can do.

I mean, you talked a bit about noise spill.

Are you looking also at the at um mitigating noise from the rooftop equipment?

Leading onto the neighbors.

Is that is there is there a good distance?

So that was part of the reason we place the the rooftop unit on the east side of the um parking deck away from the residential area, it will be screened um well enough with the uh the metal panel.

So that should uh mitigate noise coming from that that rooftop unit um and it should be as far as we can place it from the west property line to to help with that.

Okay, and then I mean second street is is a little is it's a narrow street.

There aren't a lot of improv.

Does this project do any improvements to the on the public realm on second street?

Yes.

We will be um adding a sidewalk to 2nd Avenue.

Um there will be landscaping improvements along that as along with that as well.

Is it getting any wider?

Is Second Avenue getting any wider as a result of this?

I don't know if if we're widening the there are two um there are two uh requested dedications, one on north main for 50 foot half width, and one on second half for a 30 foot halfway.

Okay, all right.

Um I just wanted to make one comment too about the site thing.

If you look at the if you look at that section, um the site wall ends up being about in the in the steeper section towards the southwest, it ends up being somewhere in the neighborhood of of sixteen to seventeen feet.

If you're standing there and you're looking up, your sight line likely shoots over the building, and then above that you're gonna have a canopy across it.

So it's it's pretty I I walked it myself.

It's pretty screened.

Yeah.

I get it.

Yeah.

Um any other questions?

Follow up questions?

Okay, so then we're gonna open it up to public comment.

I see we have a couple of cards.

If there are people you need to turn in a speaker card to speak.

So if you haven't get going and we'll get started with the few people we have.

Uh, the back.

I have two cards here of Tammy Kerr.

And please introduce yourself, and you have two minutes.

Hi, um, my name is Tammy Kerr.

I work for Eco Performance Builders and we're at 1511 second Avenue.

Um, so I guess my you know, our concerns are basically just traffic.

Um we're kind of on the corner.

It looks to me kind of where our um warehouse is situated is kind of across where one of the driveways on second avenue is going to be.

And we're home performance contractors, so we've got some box trucks, we get lots of deliveries um all day long.

So, you know, UPS, FedEx, Amazon, some from Big Johnstone, lot lots of big trucks.

We've got a couple box trucks.

So um, you know, we see how crazy the traffic is on Second Avenue, and it is a narrow street.

Um, so I I think that's part of it.

We have lots of people that walk their dogs in front of our office, kids riding bikes and families, and um, you know, I walk on that street pretty much every day on my lunch hour, so you know the traffic is a concern for us.

Um my other question, just um, you know, as I was seeing this coming about, is just how is that gonna affect our business too?

Um, even just during construction, because you know, we've got box trucks that are we've got to get our deliveries out to our projects and having things come in.

We've got at least eight people that work in our office, and um, you know, just kind of thinking about the logistics and the day-to-day and how that that's going to affect our business.

Um, you know, this looks it looks beautiful, but I think it's just mainly just uh traffic, and um, you know, how is that going to be on such a such a side uh kind of a narrow street with um a lot of residential people and then um us trying to do our business.

So that's just just a concern that we have and just you know, question we like to raise.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Next person.

Um we've got uh Jessica Clark.

Hello, this is gonna be probably a little bit of a repeat of the letter.

But um, my name is Jessica Clark.

I'm a long-term and actively involved walnut Creek resident and Larkey Park neighbor and homeowner off Second Avenue.

I've spoken in front of this commission before regarding my serious concerns as a neighbor with the other proposed developments at this site from the previous owner developers who had purposely allowed this site to fall into disrepair.

But this time I am here generally in favor of this proposal with a few specific requests for your serious attention and consideration.

Second Avenue starting directly behind the proposed dealership is a family friendly residential neighborhood and an extremely narrow 25 mile per hour speed limit street where pedestrians and bikes, primarily families and children, including my own, share the narrow, undivided roadway with vehicles traveling in both directions as there are almost no usable sidewalks along 2nd Avenue, and I don't think they're gonna put sidewalks into the neighborhood for this project.

Um to walk pets, access the numerous schools, pools, parks, etc.

within the neighborhood out of as such and out of consideration for the neighborhood residence safety, and on behalf of myself, my children, and my neighbors, I respectfully and emphatically request the following reasonable conditions be explicitly incorporated as part of the dealership's approval.

Explicitly in writing prohibit all test drives from both sales and service on 2nd Avenue into the residential neighborhood as part of the conditions for approval.

Also, post-it no right turns, signage for vehicles exiting the proposed second avenue driveway to help reinforce the above condition.

And we have had test drives from other dealerships in the past.

We've uh notified the PD and it's been cut back, but a dealership right there seems more lenient to that.

Um additionally, I respect the commission's expertise in design and know you will do your due diligence to ensure ensure this major project that will be longstanding as the gateway to our neighborhood is and remains aesthetically pleasing and appropriate.

Um I'm kind of concerned with that fence up at the top.

The one down further down north Maine has kind of a very unfinished look at the top, so just give special consideration that and just um abundant and highly aesthetic landscaping.

Thank you.

It'd be Pam, is it mid-m?

I'm sorry, Patty, yes, correct.

Sorry.

Hi.

Hi, I'm Patty Mitchell.

I'm a homeowner and resident of uh Love Larkey neighborhood.

Um I have also uh stood before this commission uh as part of Larkey Park Neighbors United.

We're a group who had opposed initially the in and out as well as the Amy's drive-thru.

I support everything that Jessica has um brought to the table in terms of limiting the access in and out of the neighborhood and it being a gateway to our neighborhood.

That said, I'm pleased to be here to um support this project.

Um that corner is awful.

It looks terrible, it has looked terrible for years.

There's been fires there, there's been unhoused individuals that have um spent time there, and um this dealership I think is a real asset to our neighborhood, and I um appreciate everything that was brought up today by the developer and the architect about um their considerations for it being within a neighborhood, but also the footprint that they're um putting out there for both the design and the landscaping, and very much appreciate the fact that there will be while we don't have a sidewalk all the way down second Avenue, having that sidewalk there in the front and around the side is a great improvement.

If they would like to go ahead and continue that further, we'd we'd really love that and appreciate that.

But we're here not to um, you know, to not to inhibit any development, and we're very, very pleased um that this project is taking um place at this location versus um versus a drive-thru.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Steve Sigarelli.

Thank you very much for uh leaving this open for our public comment.

We really do appreciate it.

Uh as noted by others, we are actually welcoming this project because prior efforts have been haphazard and honestly distasteful uh for the community.

Uh that being said, I'm going to read a letter that from my wife who's not able to be here tonight.

Uh and I will quote it.

My name is Natalie Signarelli.

I live at 15 Varton Court, directly behind the proposed Porsche dealership site.

While I'm not necessarily opposed to the project, I hope we can work collaboratively to ensure it is developed and responsibly and safely for nearby residents.

We do have official a few initial comments and questions.

Number one, demon demolition and air quality.

Given that many families on our street, including young children and elderly residents, I would like assurances that all proper precautions be will be taken during demolition to minimize release of toxic chemicals, dust, or other airborne hazards.

Clear communication with nearby residents regarding demolition times, timelines, and safety measures would be appreciated.

Uh building height and grading.

Uh, the grading of the property is uneven.

Uh she notes I would like clarification on how the proposed 30-foot building height will appear from adjacent homes.

I think we've seen some clarification uh with the documentation provided.

A visual rendering or elevation map would help neighbors understand the real impact.

I have major concerns because I've spoken to the original neighbors that have lived there, and they noted they used to have a view of Mount Diablo.

That is long gone with the current buildings.

We'd like it restored.

Uh with lighting and light pollution, concerned about the light pollution, uh, particularly off hours, since they're securing their products.

We need 10 o'clock lights out.

It's a neighborhood.

People need to sleep.

Um and we appreciate that the comments be considered.

Uh I have a few other really critical considerations.

The canal trail adjacency, uh, any type of spill off, and also pedestrians coming and going with the dealership traffic.

We just need to make sure everyone's kept safe.

Thank you for your time.

Thanks.

Uh the last card I have is is Lana Georgieva.

Hello everyone.

Well, I've enabled them this before, but I'm here because I will be the immediate neighbor with the proposed project.

So I'm 24 Vartancourt, so I'm right there.

So I also have concerns about the demolition because currently the building right now it's two feet away from us.

So um I'm not sure how how they're gonna seal that because there'll be a lot of crowd-polys, crowd crutches, rats, dust, asbestos, everything.

And again, we have young children, we have elderly, and we have people with very severe medical conditions.

So we kind of want to know how that's gonna be addressed.

Also, with the height of the building, um, I kind of want to know in terms of like sunlight and privacy, how that's gonna affect us.

Um also traffic with our cul-de-sac.

Currently, a lot of cars make U-turn for some reason they get lost, whatever.

They make a U-turn, so I think with that, there'll be more um traffic on the cul de sac.

And that's gonna be an issue because we have eight children just on that code de sac that play all the time.

So we want to make sure that they're gonna be safe.

Also, Periestrians, there's a lot of children because Contra Costa Christian School.

It's uh very close by, so a lot of well, a lot of people walk on second avenue, so safety um is also an issue.

Um light pollution uh pollution um also I wanna know because um I think you mentioned you'll be like light poles and so my concern is one of the concerns, obviously, is like the third floor, the parking lot with a light poles.

So with that, how is how that's gonna affect yes our like lights and privacy is because we're like right there.

So if it's like 30 piece setback, so this is the difference, so this is my house, this is gonna be the toll building.

So my question is everybody's gonna look at our vacuum.

And also you mentioned the the wall that you'll be building will be eight foot and then going down to four to two to nothing.

So I just want to like moral clarification on how that's gonna affect us, which house gets how much how thick is gonna be the building.

Basically, like safety, privacy, um, and noise.

With the car deliveries.

Um like um you mentioned the car deliveries will be um after office hours, so how that's gonna affect us how how noisy that's gonna be um for us, the immediate neighbors.

Uh trash pickups because trash pickups are very, very loud.

Um, and noise in general with the as mentioned car washes, compressor devices, tools, and is if the shop is going to be on on our side or or somewhere else.

So yeah, thank you very much, you guys.

Thanks.

Uh one one more card, Eric.

Is it Eric Datum?

Yeah, yeah.

Has it gone?

My name is Eric Payton.

I didn't plan on talking today, but I figured I would.

I am part owners of Mass A sports bar with my sister Melissa Barrett.

Um, we sat here, technically it'd be five years, 228 days ago sitting here to buy one third of the property, and this city denied the project, which was devastating to the longevity of my family, my life and everything.

And at the end of the day, there's nothing personal in this, it's just business.

I've met this gentleman, Steven, before three or four years ago.

He's been respectful.

I've talked to the new owner of the property, Buddha Zone Jr.

I have a cell phone number, which is unfathomable about this.

I think the disheartening thing of all of this, I'm not deposing this project.

I am sad that no one up here has asked where's Mass Ace going.

Have you talked to Mass Ace?

We've been there for 31 years as a family-owned establishment.

I have a recommendation for both of you.

I want to make this a public record, that if we decide to, and we've been actively looking for another piece of property, whether it's our goal is within two miles.

If we decide to stay in Walnut Creek, you guys have all said that we will be given a 2 a.m.

liquor license.

We're not changing our business plan.

We've been the same thing.

So keep that in consideration if we decide to move somewhere on Walnut Creek, that you will take that into 100% consideration and not be kind of we're a newbie in town.

We've been here for 31 years, but tonight when you go to bed before you go to bed, look yourself in the mirror.

None of you asked for a business that's been there for 31 years and asked where's Mass A's gonna go.

Have you talked to Mass Ace?

And I'm like I said, I'm not.

I think this is a great project for it.

I wish I was there.

The gentleman that owns the property was a gentleman beyond measures to come speak to me man to man and talk to me.

I wish I could stay.

I said I would buy our partial again.

Unfortunately that wasn't the outcome, but I just wanted to put that on record that I want you guys to be able to look me in the face in case we decide to stay in Walnut Creek to give us that respect.

Um moving forward.

It's been that long.

We were praying on our soul that it would get approved.

It was three to two votes that it didn't go through was unfortunate.

But you have to do what's the best for the city, and our goal is to be around forever.

So if the things go forward, don't say we're closing, we will be moving somewhere, somewhere close.

So thank you very much.

Thanks.

Any more uh cards?

Any other you you uh I'm sorry, you've you were already up, right?

Yeah that's you you've had your time I sorry sorry two minutes to two minutes um okay so um then let's move on to um commissioner comments right close oh close the public hearing any commissioner comments yeah I can kick it off um so I appreciate the comments about noise and demolition and all that um I'm gonna stick to our charge on our list here so in terms of site design I appreciate that it's moving the building as far as it can from the residences I think it's treating the grade well I don't have issue with the um exceptions to the FAR and the height or the um square footage of the sign all of those seem reasonable to the site design for me um the building architecture is you know suitable for the brand um the landscape plan I mentioned I wish there was a way we could mitigate with bigger trees but I understand their utility issues so I'm fine with that um same with the tree removals I understand the site design impacts that and I already spoke on the signage so those are my comments go ahead I have no additional comments okay so what else do I have?

Um I think in terms of conditions I mean I think um the the no right turn is is is something we'd like to like to recommend um in addition to that I think it'd be beneficial if if there's something like they can do with the curb and so forth to make it to encourage people to turn left as opposed to just having a sign.

I think that might be helpful um now as you know regarding the the light the lighting and the hours I mean I think because there's no conditional use permit that that cannot be imposed to to this type of a use I as I understand it.

So the only thing we can do is really just reinforce what they've already offered which is you know zero light spill to adjacent properties.

For me what's particularly important is on the west side facing the neighbors I mean it we need full cut off so sometimes you can have um those those type of lights and you can still see the light source no light sources should be visible from from the west side um and that should mitigate the concern because there won't be any lights spilling onto the property um I think there was discussion about air quality and and demolition I think regarding demolition I I'm an architect at poll permits there there will be set hours the city has set hours and they have um air quality limits all those other other things are will be a condition of the building permit I believe and there's nothing I don't think we can we can impose those conditions because they they already in the building permits they already exist right when you get a demo permit well they do but we've also got some what have become some the quasi uh um can typical conditional um uh I'm sorry I'm having trouble with the words yeah use your words yeah with uh conditions of approval sorry um that would that that have been used in SQL land for 20 years as far as idling um the types of of of machines to use of water for dust, dust control, riprap rep at the at the driveways to keep mud from going out on the street.

We've we've we've got all that.

Yeah, yeah, so it's all this you're not asking us for CQA or recommendation on sequo, but I think it's all generally there, right?

So well, correct, and and we're still with the the we're still not quite sure what that recommendation's going to be.

Um likely some type of a um um of an of an exemption, we're not sure, but even then we can still impose those conditions.

Yeah, okay.

I mean I mean lastly, I think you know I had a comment here basically to thank the Porsche dealership for staying in Walnut Creek.

Uh, because I know you've been here a long time.

I I think I think we really appreciate it.

I think Mass A's.

I I've been there, it's a great business.

Frankly, why didn't we ask the question?

Well, I think I thought everyone thought you owned that building, and it was your idea, so that that's it coming from me, but definitely encourage you to stay here in town.

That's all I have.

Okay, so um, we have just I think I've captured most of the issues here, the recommendations.

Your speakers are not on.

The recommendation from the design review commission would be um to support that left turn only.

Um that's for that's for test drives and anybody leaving on the second.

No right turn.

Um possibly to look for a physical um uh solution to work with the sign.

I'm not sure what that would look like, but we can we can take a look at it.

Okay, is there's everybody on board with that?

Yes.

Um the planning commission should have a a be presented with a time for lights out.

Um light sources should be screened as opposed to just spill over.

Especially on the rooftop.

Um, and then um conditions for demolition, which uh you know I mentioned earlier are are are quasi standard conditions.

I think that's all I got.

Did I miss anything?

Nope.

Um it seemed to be that there was there was support for specifically support for the deviations in development standards for terms of height and FAR.

Uh and there was support for the signage and that it was seemed to be in scale with the development.

Okay, good.

Are we voting on this?

No.

No, these are just recommendations because the planning commission acts.

Correct.

Okay.

Um then we're gonna move on to the next item on the agenda.

Which is commission considerations.

So do we have any?

Um commission consider for for staff anyway.

Um just to remind the chair and vice chair that there is a meeting Friday morning um with the mayor and all the chairs of the other commissions, breakfast will be served.

Uh, and I believe that you were you received an email with um the upcoming calendar.

Yes for for the commission.

The vice chair won't be here, so if anybody wants to come, come on along, I'll be there.

Yeah, I th uh if you you're right across the street.

Not that early, I'm not.

Okay.

Commission member and staff reports or announcements.

I think you just gave them, right?

I just gave it okay.

Adjourned.

All right.