3A Public Hearing 2008 0219 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Board of Zoning Adjustments Regular Meeting December 6, 2007 Minute No. 2007-23 Page 8 of 16 were not enough churches to make an impact on industrial space in San Leandro, as was the case in other local cities. Member Gilcrest asked again if the speaker was contrasting the City's denial with someone else's approval for assembly in that area, did the speaker have a specific example of someone else's approval or was he pointing to the duration of the application? Staff had said earlier that they did not remember any conditional uses for assembly being granted in the industrial district. Mr. MacDonald replied that the test for discrimination was if a religious use was treated differently from any other assembly use. All of the assembly uses in that area, including MDL, the company who had occupied their site previously, proved the discrimination. Member Gilcrest asked if the speaker was saying that any industrial use with greater than 50 people constituted an assembly. Mr. MacDonald answered that he was. Interim Planning Manager Livermore clarified that there was a distinction between what the Building Code called an Assembly Use and what the Zoning Code called an Assembly Use. Gary Mortara, Senior Pastor, stated that he had been in attendance a year ago when the assembly Overlay was discussed. Former Planning Manager Pollart had stated at first that the discussion was brought about by the application that Faith Fellowship had submitted. Later she stated that it was not about the church, but about the Assembly Overlay. He remembered that the meeting was held in December and it was decided by the Board that they did not have enough information to make a decision at that time. Chair Goldt corrected the speaker's recollection. She had attended the meeting and she remembered that the speaker had been in attendance. However, the special meeting was held to plan the Assembly Overlay District and it did not specifically address the church. During the meeting, he was informed of that. Pastor Mortara suggested that there was a problem with the process when the Overlay district was discussed in December when their application had been submitted in May. He felt that he had no other option other than to go ahead with the purchase of the property. When he had asked to be shown another site within the city, the City Manager had told him to look for a site in another city. None of the 196 properties was appropriate. Escrow was due to close and no one in the city had helped them. When the City Manager told him that it would help his cause if he got favorable responses from the neighboring businesses, he immediately visited Otis Spunkmeyer, Kennerly-Spratling, Challenge Butter, the NCCI Building, K and S Automotive who all agreed to the church's relocation with the agreement to share parking. The Fire Captain had agreed the site was a perfect place for a church. It was not fair to the church if the Boards' minds were already decided.