3A Public Hearing 2008 0122 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Excerpts from Planning Commission Meefing Minutes January 11, 2007 Agenda No. 07-OI Page 2 of 4 units and 46 two-bedroom units. The one-bedroom units, with one bathroom each, cover 530 square feet. The two-bedroom units, with two bathrooms each, cover 896 square feet. At the time it was approved, the development required 167 parking spaces, a ratio of 1.74 spaces per unit. According to Zoning Code Article 24, which addresses Condominium Conversions, the project proposed must conform to applicable parking requirements for a multi-family residential project. One-bedroom units require 1.5 spaces per unit, while two-bedroom units require 2.25 spaces per unit, for a total requirement of 179 spaces. To create the additional parking needed, the Applicant proposes re-striping the parking azea beneath one building to gain an additional parking place, and also redesigning and reducing the landscape setback to create 12 additional spaces in the front of the property. The proposal thus includes a total of 180 off-street parking spaces. Typically a maximum of 35% compact spaces are permitted; the Applicant's proposal calls for 44% of the parking spaces to be for compact vehicles (80 spaces). Staff has already recommended that the Applicant evenly distribute and appropriately mark the 24 visitor parking spaces. The landscape redesign would reduce setbacks to the parking area from a range of 10-15 feet to five feet. The setback area also includes afive-foot wide public utility easement. Planner Penaranda noted that some potential landscape features, such as low walls, trellises, shrubs, trees and ground covers might mitigate the loss of landscaped setback. He observed, too, that the existing trees' roots are surfacing and their canopies are reaching utility lines, so new trees make sense from that perspective. Planner Penaranda explained that where properties include common laundry facilities, as the Woodside Apartments does, the City's Condominium Conversion Ordinance calls for a minimum of one washer and dryer for each five units. The complex currently has a total of eight washers and eight dryers, well below the 20 each required by the ordinance. Because, according to the Applicant, inadequate draining and venting prohibits installing laundry facilities in each unit and there is not enough space to add any more than four additional washer-dryer sets in the existing laundry facilities, the Applicant is requesting an exception to the laundry facilities requirement. He said that the application provides for 14 "inclusionary" units, which meets the City's 15% requirement, and added that these units should be integrated with mazket-rate units in both buildings. The City Council's Business Development Sub-Committee reviewed the proposal on November 9, 2006, and indicated that the existing redwood trees should not be affected by any of the proposed site work, because they are healthy, attractive and provide a buffer against the boxy apartment buildings. The Sub-Committee also suggested that one of the apartments might be converted to a laundry room to satisfy the requirement for a total of 20 washers and 20 dryers to serve the needs of the residents. Planner Penaranda asked the Planning Commission for direction as regazds the proposed reduction in the landscape setback area, consideration of frontage improvements facing Haas Avenue, the ratio of compact-to-standard pazking spaces, the laundry facilities, and the redwood trees. Kathy Oesterreich, representing Davidon Homes and Woodside San Leandro, a limited partnership, spoke on behalf of the Applicant. She recapped the organizations' evolution and history in San Leandro, as well as showing photos of other area properties it has developed, among which some have previously been converted to condominium ownership. Davidon Homes purchased the Woodside Apartments' site in the early 1980s