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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1118 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING TUESDAY - NOVEMBER 18, 1997 7:00 P.M. - CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBER 73-510 FRED WARING DRIVE I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Ferguson called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Commissioner Fernandez led in the pledge of allegiance. III. ROLL CALL Members Present: Jim Ferguson, Chairperson Sonia Campbell George Fernandez Members Absent: Paul Beaty Sabby Jonathan IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Consideration of the November 4, 1997 meeting minutes. Action: Moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, approving the November 4, 1997 meeting minutes. Motion carried 3-0. V. SUMMARY OF COUNCIL ACTION: Mr. Drell summarized pertinent November 13, 1997 City Council actions. VI. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. VII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. CASE NOS. PMW 97-24 AND PMW 97-25 - CENTURY CROWELL COMMUNITIES, Applicant Request for approval of two parcel map waivers within TT 24254 (Sonata II) to allow for a series of lot line adjustments. Action: It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, approving the Consent Calendar by minute motion. Motion carried 3-0. %IW MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 18, 1997 Vlll. PUBLIC HEARINGS Anyone who challenges any hearing matter in court may be limited to raising only those issues he/she or someone else raised at the public hearing described herein, or in written correspondence delivered to the Planning Commission at, or prior to, the public hearing. A. Case No. DP 03-81 Amendment #1 - U.S. FILTER CORPORATION AND MIKE HOMME, Applicants Request for approval of an amendment to the existing development plan to permit minor additions at each end of the existing office building located at the southeast corner of Cook Street and Country Club Drive. Mr. Smith indicated that the request was for approval of a 4546 square foot addition (2273 square feet at each end of the existing office complex occupied by U.S. Filter Corporation). They had designed it to be single story. They pushed it closer to the street to the point where it would be in line with the existing wing walls and the shed roof which covers the existing structure. That aspect of the application required the modification of the approved development plan. While they would be deleting eight parking spaces on the site, Mr. Smith explained that they continued to have 70 spaces so the parking was consistent with the ordinance. Staff felt that of the options available to the applicant with Void the building designed facing the intersection in a diagonal fashion. There was an existing average setback of 56 feet. With the addition the average setback would be lowered to about 52 feet, so there would still be considerable setbacks. Other options would be to allow two story development (which staff didn't think would be a good idea) or they could put the unit further into the parking lot and they would end up with more parking spaces being deleted. Staff felt this was probably the best way to proceed. He indicated that the findings could be met as outlined in the draft resolution and the proposal was a Class 1 Categorical Exemption for CEOA purposes. Staff recommended approval and asked for questions. Chairperson Ferguson asked if the 32-foot setback was there because of the development plan or because of an ordinance requirement. Mr. Smith replied both. Chairperson Ferguson asked if the requirement of the ordinance was 32 feet. Mr. Smith explained that both Cook Street and Country Club Drive are arterial streets. The ordinance prescribes 32 feet. With the building and development plan as it exists, the main structure itself was at 32 feet. The shed roof and wing walls come to within 20 feet. Chairperson Ferguson noted that the commission was not being asked to approve a variance or exception and asked how that process worked. Mr. Smith informed commission that development plans were, at some point in the early 1980's, replaced by precise plan applications. In this instance, the amendment to the development plan would accomplish the variance. Mr. Drell indicated it was an exception. 2 � MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 18, 1997 Chairperson Ferguson clarified that the commission was not being requested to make findings to support a variance, but to support findings for an exception. Mr. Drell concurred. Chairperson Ferguson asked what the standard was upon which the commission was supposed to find an exception. Mr. Drell said it was the best solution that did no harm. Chairperson Ferguson asked the City Attorney if this was the legally proper way to do this. Mr. Hargreaves said he hadn't reviewed that particular issue and he hoped that staff thoroughly reviewed that particular aspect of it. Mr. Drell stated that this zone allows the modification of standards with the approval of an amendment to the development plan or precise plan. Chairperson Ferguson asked if there were any other questions for staff. There were none. Chairperson Ferguson opened the public hearing and asked the applicant to speak first and then anyone wishing to address this application. MR. MIKE HOMME, 46-300 Desert Lily, stated that he was present to answer any questions. Chairperson Ferguson asked if anyone wished to address the commission in FAVOR or OPPOSITION to the proposal. There was no one and the public hearing was closed. Commissioner Campbell stated that she passes by there every week and as long as the building was one story, she didn't think anyone would notice the addition once construction was complete. She was in favor of the additions and would move for approval. Commissioner Fernandez said that he was also in favor of the project. Chairperson Ferguson agreed and said he saw no harm associated with this request. His only concern was trying to find a showing of extraordinary hardship, but if they didn't have to, then he thought it was great and was a good solution. Action: It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, approving the findings as presented by staff. Motion carried 3-0. It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 1838, approving DP 03-81 Amendment #1 , subject to conditions. Motion carried 3-0. B. Case No. ZOA 97-4 - CITY OF PALM DESERT, Applicant Request for approval of an amendment to Chapter 25.16 of the Municipal Code, Development standards of the R-1 zone. %or 3 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 18, 1997 Mr. Smith noted that the other night when he presented the Home Based Business Ordinance to the council, they suggested that he not go through the details. He asked if the commission wished him to go into detail or if he should just respond to questions. Chairperson Ferguson asked if the commission had any questions from their review of the staff report. Commissioners Campbell and Fernandez both indicated they didn't have any questions. Chairperson Ferguson opened the public hearing and asked if anyone wished to speak in FAVOR or OPPOSITION to the item. There was no one and the public hearing was closed. Action: It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, approving the findings as presented by staff. Motion carried 3-0. It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 1839, recommending to City Council approval of ZOA 97-4. Motion carried 3-0. IX. MISCELLANEOUS A. REQUEST FOR A DETERMINATION OF USE TO ALLOW AN ART GALLERY IN THE PC-4 ZONE. Mr. Drell distributed a map of the area in question and explained that this was a request for determination of use/ordinance clarification question relative to a potential application in the PC-4 zone on property on Highway 74 south of the El Paseo Collection. He said the general area extended from the end of the El Paseo Collection parking lot up through the property where La Paon Restaurant is located. The area is zoned PC-4 and is the Resort Commercial zone which is a zone designed for properties to be developed as one master plan. It was zoned that way when the property was under single ownership. Subsequently, that property had financial difficulty and the property is owned by two or three ownerships. The property where the question is occurring is owned by Churchill Management or Fred Fern and Company. At least four lots to the south are owned by D. Hubbard and he was unclear as to who owns the La Paon site. He stated that the PC-4 zone requires as a primary use on a project site to be a restaurant or hotel. There were two ways to look at it. One individual lot (eight remaining undeveloped) or as one project/one site. There is a restaurant on the site, La Paon Restaurant. Once a hotel or restaurant is part of the project, then there is a whole list of associated resort tourist retail uses of which art galleries is one which can be developed in association with a hotel or restaurant. He thought it was probably unreasonable to expect every single parcel to have a hotel or restaurant on it. The interpretation he was making was that the existence of a restaurant on what was originally the project site qualifies for the 4 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 18, 1997 w..► associated uses to apply for a conditional use in the zone. The determination at this point was if they are eligible to apply for a conditional use, not that they were being approved. He recommended that they be eligible to apply. Commissioner Campbell asked if La Paon owned their own lot or if someone else owned it. Mr. Drell thought they bought the lot, but he couldn't tell for sure from the map. He noted that they were the furthest south in this group of parcels. Commissioner Campbell asked if these parcels would be the first two. Mr. Drell said they would be the first two parcels adjacent to the El Paseo Collection parking lot. Chairperson Ferguson asked if this would fill the space between the restaurant and the parking lot. Mr. Drell replied no. He indicated that there would be four parcels in between. The restaurant was on parcel 12 at 45-640 Highway 74. Chairperson Ferguson asked if the four parcels to the south of that parcel were vacant. Mr. Drell concurred. Chairperson Ferguson noted that there were eight appurtenant parcels and then the two subject parcels. He asked, under Mr. Drell's interpretation, how many associated uses could go on these parcels anchored just by the restaurant, all eight? Mr. Drell indicated that this was an odd zone and was never very successful at doing what it was supposed to do. People build hotels or restaurants if they decided they liked a site and if it made financial sense. They have basically abandoned this zone almost everywhere else. An option would be to rezone this C-1 , but in this particular case since it was still a different sort of property than one would expect, he was not recommending that it be rezoned C-1 . He felt that a lot more control was retained over respective uses with the PC-4 zone, where virtually all �,.. the uses would be conditional uses, other than hotels and restaurants. The option was to say no, that it should be master planned and the property owners should get together, but he didn't feel it was likely. He felt they should consider this use, which is a logical progression up from El Paseo. Commissioner Campbell noted that now there are only two land owners. Mr. Drell concurred. Chairperson Ferguson agreed that he didn't want to see the zone changed to C- 1 , but legally if they took the farthest parcel away from the restaurant and said it was closely associated enough, someone coming in on one of the four parcels in between would have a pretty good argument that the city was being selective. Mr. Drell concurred. If for some reason the city wanted to hold this whole property out waiting for a hotel that was an option. Chairperson Ferguson asked if the commission could approve this parcel and refer the matter immediately to the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Review Committee to determine what should be done with these parcels. Mr. Drell said that could be done and at least they could initiate the discussion. There were really just two choices and on all the other parcels they actually went through the same sort of thing. The Desert Crossing site was also zoned PC-4, the Toys R Us site was zoned PC-4. Chairperson Ferguson asked if the city did zone changes on those sites. Mr. Drell replied yes. He also thought that the Mervyn's site was also zoned PC-4. They changed the zones and on Highway 1 1 1 it made sense and they didn't think that any more big hotels would locate on Highway 111 . The ultimate question came down to whether or not the commission wanted an art gallery in this location. If they felt an art gallery was an %No 5 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 18, 1997 appropriate use to consider, then they could allow them to apply. If the commission felt that the integrity of the whole area should somehow be protected, then they wouldn't allow them to apply. Chairperson Ferguson stated that he would like to let the art gallery go ahead and apply for a conditional use permit. He just felt it was intellectually dishonest to have a zone for a hotel and he would not be in favor of a hotel there. Mr. Drell explained that a hotel or restaurant was of equal value. Commissioner Campbell asked about the existing parking lot and Club 74, since that was a restaurant, and if there were two lots there. Mr. Drell said that technically the Club 74 restaurant was in the C-1 zone. Club 74 and Daily Grill both. They had never been zoned PC-4. Commissioner Campbell asked if Mr. Drell would consider the two lots there. Mr. Drell agreed that there were restaurants all around it, but that was why it was before the commission. Chairperson Ferguson asked if Mr. Drell's interpretation could be limited to say that for each hotel appurtenant to the PC-4 zone, one associated use would be supported. That would allow one other person to come in eventually. Mr. Drell concurred. Chairperson Ferguson also requested that CZORC be asked to sit down with property owners to see what they want to do. Mr. Drell informed commission that one of the CZORC members was in the process of trying to put together a hotel deal on the remaining property. Chairperson Ferguson thought that seemed like a noisy location for a hotel, but that wasn't before them, the art gallery was, and he was in favor of letting them apply for a conditional use permit. Commissioner Campbell and Commissioner Fernandez were also in favor. Mr. Drell asked if the commission would like to hear from the applicants. Commission concurred. DAVID AND LISA AUSTIN, the owners of Imago Galleries on El Paseo, addressed the commission and said they have been in Palm Desert for seven years. Mr. Austin said they were talking about opening a 12,000-18,000 square foot gallery with a sculpture garden. They currently host fund raisers for the Palm Springs Desert Museum often in the gallery and this would enable them to do something on a much larger scale with regards to charitable events. The architecture would be consistent with El Paseo and they felt it would be a landmark and an asset. If there was a hotel next door, it would be a great asset. He said that Fred Fern was very pleased with the idea of them working next door to his restaurants and retail businesses. Commissioner Campbell said that if they were happy to be in that location that was great and if they didn't need the foot traffic. Mrs. Austin felt that it was high end enough that a step off of El Paseo was fine and they needed more space. They were in just under 4,000 square feet of space now. They had another 3,000 across the street and another 1 ,500 feet of warehouse space. She said they would like to combine all of that. Mr. Austin stated that in the level of gallery that they are, they were more of a service business than retail business. They do attract the retail 6 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 18, 1997 public and would build something that would make people want to stop. Mrs. Austin said they get a lot of walk-in traffic, which was nice, but they also do a lot of things for the community like the McCallum Theater. They have a lot of calls for people doing events. They could only do a sit down dinner for 40-50 people at this point. Commissioner Campbell said she would be sorry to see them leave El Paseo, but she felt that they would still be an asset to El Paseo because it was just a walk away. Mrs. Austin didn't feel that they were leaving El Paseo. They were expanding and growing. Mr. Austin said that they were planning to be there for 20 years or they wouldn't be building a building. El Paseo would be growing somewhat and there wouldn't just be frontage on the street, so they would start it. Commissioner Campbell said she was in favor of it. Chairperson Ferguson said he looked forward to their application. Action: • It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, determining by minute motion that an art gallery use would be eligible to apply for a conditional use permit in the PC-4 zone and referring the matter to the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance Review Committee. Motion carried 3-0. Commissioner Campbell asked the Austins how soon they would be applying. They responded that their first step would be to hire an architect. X. COMMITTEE MEETING UPDATES A. CIVIC CENTER STEERING COMMITTEE - (No meeting) B. DESERT WILLOW COMMITTEE - (November 18, 1997) Chairperson Ferguson indicated that the committee reviewed the time line for the south golf course. They were getting ready to go out to bid for the clubhouse. They heard that there is a party interested in putting an 800- room hotel that would occupy both the main hotel site and the ancillary 300 room hotel site, which sounded almost too good to be true, but at least they were interested and they would see what happened. He .said that would finish the main section of development in Desert Willow. There was still the parcel at the southeast corner that was vacant and the frontage parcel on Country Club. That would put them at about 1400 rooms, which was almost capacity for the two golf courses. Chairperson Ferguson asked if it was more than capacity. Mr. Drell said it was when the time share was added in. Chairperson Ferguson asked if the Marriott had overflow, and they had two courses and 940 rooms. Mr. Drell concurred and indicated %no 7 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION NOVEMBER 18, 1997 they also had the 600 timeshare units. Chairperson Ferguson said that ..r would pretty much put them at capacity. Mr. Drell said that the build out of timeshare was about 15 years. Commissioner Campbell asked if that included the Marriott Courtyard also. Chairperson Ferguson said no, they were fenced off and while they could play our course, they would have to get into their cars to get there. Mr. Drell noted they weren't getting any special access to the course. He said that if people were waiting in line to play the golf course and the hotel was full that would be great. Chairperson Ferguson said he would wait until they submitted something to discuss the financial aspects of the deal, but it was being said that it would insure the financial solvency of Palm Desert for probably the next 30-50 years. C. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE - (No meeting) D. PROJECT AREA 4 COMMITTEE - (No meeting) E. PALM DESERT/RANCHO MIRAGE MONTEREY AVENUE CORRIDOR PLANNING WORK GROUP - (No meeting) F. ZONING ORDINANCE REVIEW COMMITTEE - (No meeting) XI. COMMENTS 1 . Commissioner Fernandez asked what was happening on Hovley Lane near El Dorado across from Indian Ridge because the fence was down in Indian v� Wells. Mr. Drell said he wasn't sure but at one time Palm Desert was working with Indian Wells to widen Hovley Lane on Bill Bone's land. He said he would find out. 2. Commissioner Campbell congratulated Chairperson Ferguson on being elected to the City Council. Chairperson Ferguson said it has been a pleasure working with everyone and he would like the commission's input on a replacement since they have to go through that process. Commissioner Fernandez also congratulated Chairperson Ferguson. XII. ADJOURNMENT It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez, adjourning the meeting to December 2, 1997. Motion carri d 3-0. The meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. PHILIP DRELL, S cretary ATTEST: ONIA M. CAMPBELL, Acting Chairperson City of Palm Desert, California /tm 8