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HomeMy WebLinkAbout0503 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY - MAY 3, 1994 7 :00 P.M. - CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBER 73-510 FRED WARING DRIVE � * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Spiegel called the meeting to order at 7 :00 p.m. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Commissioner Jonathan led in the pledge of allegiance. III . ROLL CALL Members Present: Bob Spiegel, Chairperson Sabby Jonathan ; Carol Whitlock ; Members Absent: Paul Beaty Staff Present: Ray Diaz Gregg Holtz Bob Hargreaves Tonya Monroe Jeff Winklepleck IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: +.. Consideration of the April 19, 1994 meeting minutes. Action: Moved by Commissioner Jonathan, seconded by Commissioner Whitlock, approving the April 19, 1994 meeting minutes as submitted. Carried 3-0. V. SUMMARY OF COUNCIL ACTION: Commission continued summary of council action for Mr. Diaz until later in the meeting. VI. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - A None. VII . CONSENT CALENDAR None. ... MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 VIII . PUBLIC HEARINGS � A. Case No. PP 94-2 - FIRST BANK OF PALM DESERT, Applicant Request for approval of a precise plan to allow construction of a 4000 square foot bank building at 42-035 Washington Street in the PC-2 zone. Mr. Winklepleck noted that this area was part of the Palm Desert Country Club area annexation, which was projected to be part of the city in early to mid June. This approval would become active when the annexation was completed. He summarized the pertinent points of the staff report, noting that the site would be accessed from the existing parking lot at the Lucky Center. There would be no new street ingress/ egress points . He stated that the preliminary architecture and landscaping was approved by the architectural commission at their April 12 meeting. The project met all the standards set forth in the county' s conditions of approval for this project. It also met all the city' s PC-2 standards, except for the front setback off Washington. County standards for their PCS zoning did not specify any setback; the city' s specified a 20 foot setback and the project proposed 16 feet. As part of the city's annexation policy, the city agreed to adopt standards for all projects that had been approved in � the county previous to annexation. With that, the 16 foot setback was acceptable to staff. Staff recommended approval of the project. Chairperson Spiegel noted that a memo from the crime prevention department was included with the staff report that asked that the ATM's be properly lighted and visible. Mr. Winklepleck stated that the applicant/bank manager could address that issue. Chairperson Spiegel asked if the city was satisfied with the amount of lighting being provided for the bank. Mr. Winklepleck indicated that staff had not seen the total lighting plan for the bank yet; it would be submitted with the final drawings, but he was sure First Bank would want sufficient lighting. Chairperson Spiegel felt the location was a good one right at the corner of Washington and 42nd Avenue; Mr. Winklepleck concurred that there was a lot of visibility at that location. Chairperson Spiegel opened the public testimony and asked the applicant to address the commission. 2 �r MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 �r MR. RICK HOLDEN, Holden and Johnson Architects, said that First Bank when the original bank was done in Palm Desert, had a program where they liked maximum visibility from the street. They preferred a lot of glass and provided the entire street frontage on Washington with glass . He indicated that the ATM was actually inside in the vestibule on the parking lot in an interior lit area that was completely glassed in from the parking lot with see through glass from Washington. He said that part of the bank's policy was to have as much visibility as possible throughout the whole bank. Chairperson Spiegel asked if this was the first branch; Mr. Holden said it was outside of the main bank. Mr. Holden thanked the city for reviewing the proposal . He noted that originally there was a gas station proposed to the county for this location. He indicated that First Bank had dropped its drive-through use, even at the main branch. Mr. Winklepleck offered to let the sheriff ' s department review the working drawings; Commission indicated that would not be necessary. Chairperson Spiegel asked if anyone wished to address the .., commission in FAVOR or OPPOSITION to the proposal. There was no one and the public testimony was closed. Commissioner Whitlock asked for clarification regarding the difference in the setback of 16 to 20 feet and why the city was not concerned. Mr. Winklepleck explained that it has been the policy of the city to adopt standards from projects that were approved in the county (i.e. housing developments on Hovley) . In the county PCS standards, there was no setback called out for buildings unless specifically approved for that project. This project was providing a 16 foot setback, whereas the city would have required 20 feet. Action: Moved by Commissioner Whitlock, seconded by Chairperson Spiegel, approving the findings as presented by staff. Carried 2-0-1 (Commissioner Jonathan abstained) . Moved by Commissioner Whitlock, seconded by Chairperson Spiegel, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 1643, approving PP 94-2, subject to conditions . Carried 2-0-1 (Commissioner Jonathan abstained) . `�' 3 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 V. SUMMARY OF COUNCIL ACTION: � Mr. Diaz summarized pertinent April 28, 1994 city council action. B. Case No. CUP 94-3 - QUENTON W. JESSOP III, Applicant Request for approval of a conditional use permit to allow the operation of a 2700 square foot church and day care center at 72-171 Highway 111 in the C-1 zone. Mr. Winklepleck summarized the request, proposed hours for church services, and the day care operation. He explained that the 4700 square foot total building was currently vacant. There were 63 onsite parking spaces for the building. The church' s main auditorium was approximately 1750 square feet and based on the size of that and the code requirement for parking, the proposed use would require 50 parking spaces, leaving a total of 13 extra spaces. If the church was operating during the week, according to the parking requirements the remaining 2000 square feet could come in and still meet the parking requirement. Because � church services occur on weekends and evenings when most businesses would be closed, any future tenants occupying the vacant space would have more than sufficient parking space available to them. With the day care use during the week, the parking reguirement was much less than a church use would be and would require 14 parking spaces; this was based on 60 children and up to 9 employees/teachers . Staff recommended approval . Commissioner Jonathan asked for clarification on the parking count--there was one building split into two uses, 1750 square feet for the church and 900 square feet for the school . The 63 onsite parking spaces was for the total building. When talking about the day care operation requiring 14 spaces plus 9, that was 23 and there would be 49 left over. Mr. Winklepleck explained that it was 14 spaces total based on the parking requirement. During the day when other businesses would operate, there would be 49 parking spaces available. Commissioner Jonathan noted that the church and day care uses were mutually exclusive. Mr. Winklepleck concurred. 4 � MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 +.. Chairperson Spiegel asked if the this was currently a furniture store; Mr. Winklepleck said it was currently vacant, but was the Prudential building. Chairperson Spiegel opened the public testimony and asked the applicant to address the commission. MR. QUENTON JESSOP of Rancho Mirage, said that he did not have any overlapping hours of use with the present tenant, which was the furniture store. They had looked at other facilities, but the parking provided was only a fraction of what was available at this facility. He indicated that the furniture store was adjacent to them on the east end lower level . The furniture store hours ceased at 5: 00 p.m. or 6 : 00 p.m. and the church functions started at 7 : 00 p.m. He did not think the furniture store was open on Sundays during the summer. He said that they would be considerate of their needs and would not occupy the spaces right in the front contiguous to their facility. Commissioner Jonathan asked if this was a temporary situation, or a situation where the church intended to have a long term use. r... Mr. Jessop said they hoped to grow out of the facility, but because of the room divisions, there were about 13 or 14 rooms including restrooms--all of that worked ideally for the church. They hoped to construct a church facility from the ground up in the future. Commissioner Jonathan asked if the room divisions on the plan were already in place; Mr. Jessop concurred and indicated that there were some three foot high non-load bearing walls that would not be hard to remove. The other rooms would be used as they are with just a few changes . Commissioner Jonathan asked about playground facilities for the 60 children; Mr. Jessop stated there were none, but they felt there was a need for child care for very young children, and they knew that this facility did not lend itself to playground activities . He noted there was an outward opening door on the west end leading to a small grass area, but during the summer time there would only be inside activities. With the younger children, they would provide some of the play school plastic type slides inside. He agreed that with a full-fledged older day care center they would generally want to have some grassy or park areas. He felt there was a need for a younger child care center. He said the day care ``' 5 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 would not only be for the parishioners, but their main � purpose was to function as a church and the day care a secondary use to meet the needs of their parishioners and the community. Chairperson Spiegel asked if there would be any changes to the outside af the building; Mr. Jessop replied no, but there was some signage that they would comply with. He noted that they were the gateway to the city and wanted to make the property look good and they would provide extra maintenance. Chairperson Spiegel stated that he shared Commissioner Jonathan' s concern about children playing outside because of the amount of traffic on Highway 111 . It would be dangerous for children to play outside. Mr. Jessop concurred and stated that if there were any outside activities, they would check with the city regarding fencing. There was a door on the west end and a small lawn area, but if they were to have any activities and that door were to be in an unlocked position, then they would have to have some sort of safety net in the form of a fence that would be approved by the city. When it came to insurance, that would be the first thing the insurance company would also note. They wanted to make sure the children were protected and that was an impor�ant factor. The back side faced the parking lot and it � was like an enclosed parking lot and was much safer than the average parking lot because of the configuration with the parking lot 20 feet removed from any real traffic and about 30 or 40 feet from the front door. That was very positive, but on the other side facing Highway 111 was a different matter. They would have to pay attention to those issues . Commissioner Jonathan indicated that they could end up with a "catch 22" situation because there were probably fire exit doors, which meant people had to be able to get out. They were generally locked from the outside, but had a push bar to go out. That presented a dangerous situation because children could get out; on the other hand they couldn't be locked in because in the event of a fire, they had to be able to exit. It would be the same with a perimeter fence--there would have to be egress available. Mr. Diaz said that on exit doors it could be required that an alarm sound and that could be placed as a condition of approval. Mr. Winklepleck suggested a condition that no outside play be allowed. Mr. Diaz stated that if the applicant wished to 6 � MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 r.,, have outside play in the future, he could come back to the commission and request it. Chairperson Spiegel asked if anyone wished to address the commission in FAVOR or OPPOSITION to the proposal . There was no one and the public testimony was closed. Commissioner Jonathan stated that with the two added conditions the pro ject was acceptable and moved for approval. Action: Moved by Commissioner Jonathan, seconded by Commissioner Whitlock, approving the findings as presented by staff. Chairpgrson Spiegel stated that he wanted to go on record that he was in favor of child care and churches; he admired the applicant creating one but he was concerned about the location. As far as the City of Palm Desert was concerned, the applicant was at a "Broadway and 42nd Avenue" and in an office building that did not give the greatest image to the city, nor did it give the best image to the church. He felt that economically it probably made sense, so he was not going to vote against the project, but he wanted to go on record that he hoped they were tremendously successful to the point they would go to a location that made more sense. .., Commissioner Whitlock concurred and wished the applicant luck. Chairperson Spiegel called for a vote. Carried 3-0 . Moved by Commissioner Jonathan, seconded by Commissioner Whitlock, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 1644, approving CUP 94-3, subject to conditions as amended. Carried 3-0 . IX. MISCELLANEOUS A. ORAL REPORT ON THE STATE'S ATTEMPT AT REVENUE DISTRIBUTION. ' Mr. Diaz stated that there was a law before the state legislature that would have placed a cap on existing sales tax revenues that cities generated and then the remainder of the sales tax generated would be distributed on the basis of population countywide. Mr. Diaz explained that the date on the cap was never established and the bill was stopped. Staff anticipated that there would be other attempts on the sales tax to have some type of distribution beyond the point of source in the future and staff was keeping on top of that. In terms of what the city was doing in this area, they were ... � MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 involved with other cities and organizations to try to keep as much sales tax here as possible. They were seeking to � develop as much retail sales tax as possible, which had a down side in terms of vacancies in the commercial area. On the one hand the city wanted to encourage sales tax producers; Palm Desert Country Club annexation would assist the city for future taxes that might be dispersed on the basis of population. Staff anticipated that there would be other pieces of legislation that would be introduced in this area because there were more cities and more people in cities that had less sales tax than Palm Desert. Any redistribution of sales tax would help the counties . Staff did not anticipate any new legislation coming out of the governor' s office in terms of sales tax distribution between now and the election. The legislation that was defeated was introduced by Valerie Brown, a democratic representative out of Santa Rosa. He said the issue was defeated in committee. Commissioner Whitlock asked if Mr. Diaz saw this as a push for some of the cities to organize into joint cities, i.e. Indio and Coachella becoming one, or Palm Springs and Cathedral City. Mr. Diaz replied no, what would probabZy happen if such legislation was to pass would be some way of sharing revenue. The La Quinta/Indio situation on the auto park was a good example. Previous to that the cities of � Temecula and Murrieta agreed to split the sales tax on a regional shopping center in that area. He thought there might be more of that going on in cities rather than the merging of cities . He said it didn't matter which side of the street the retail development went on, they would split the sales tax. That would probably happen before cities would start to merge and might be the future. Every year there was some legislation introduced on redistributing sales tax and next year there would probably be another measure. The biggest impact had not been the impact on legislation on sales tax distribution, but the legislation amending what redevelopment agencies could do in terms of bringing in development. Car dealerships were exempted, they had to be areas that were previously urbanized, and they couldn't go into large vacant areas such as north of Hovley in Palm Desert. He said there were more cities that would benefit from redistribution; those cities that had the sales tax needed to keep it. In Palm Desert 's defense it was not a clear profit; it did cost more to have commercial development in the city in terms of police and fire protection. Chairperson Spiegel asked if Mr. Diaz thought this would effect bed tax also; Mr. Diaz said that the one thing that he : 8 +�rr MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 .... had been saying on bed taxes was to be careful because the state could say that bed taxes would be treated like sales tax--the state would get five percent, the county one percent, and cities would get one percent. Or cities couZd get anything above the six percent. At this point in time there had not been a serious threat to bed taxes . Palm Desert charged 9�, but cities like San Francisco charged 12$- 14� . Chairperson 5piegel noted that New York City charged 14$ . Mr. Diaz said he could see that until the economy got better, they would continue trying to do something. So far it had not happened. Commissioner Jonathan noted that Mr. Diaz said there was a trend in redistribution--he asked what the main forces were behind that, if it was the big cities in California like Los Angeles, Riverside, etc. Mr. Diaz felt it was more that the state was broke and it came down to the cities that had money because the counties didn't. That was generally where it was coming from. It was trying to solve the state problem and part of the reason there was a state problem went back to Assembly Bill 8 which sought to make all the cities whole. Everyone said that eventually it would catch up with them and at that time there was a surplus; the state distributed the surplus and now the state was broke. In terms of the state ..� budget crunch, he felt it didn't look any better for next year than it did for last year. The first year the city went through this staff thought the second year they would be back and that happened. That was generally where it was at. The big cities for the most part kind of leveled out. Cities like Los Angeles had enough population to go per capita; they went for source and were okay. X. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS - B None. XI . ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE UPDATE Mr. Diaz indicated there was no update. XII . COMMENTS Chairperson Spiegel noted that staff was working on getting the commission copies of Wheelers Desert Letter and the •..�. 9 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MAY 3, 1994 Desert View. Chairperson Spiegel stated that having those � newsletters would be advantageous to the commission. XIII. ADJOURNMENT Moved by Commissioner Whitlock, seconded by Commissioner Jonathan, adjourning the meeting to May 17, 1994 y minute motion. Carried 3-0 . The meeting w adjourned :42 p.m. ,� . :.�'� • RAMON A. DIAZ, ec ary ATTEST: /t' C�- ROBERT A. SPIEGE , i erson Palm Desert Planning Commission /tm ri 10 �