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HomeMy WebLinkAbout0319 ����� MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION TUESDAY, MARCH 19, 2002 � 7:00 P.M. - CIVIC CENTER COUNCIL CHAMBER .� . 73-510 FRED WARING DRIVE � * �. � * * �. �. * * � � � .� * � �. * * � * � � * * � � � * * � � .� * �. � � .� �. * �. I. CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Finerty called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. II. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Commissioner Campbell led in the pledge of allegiance. III. ROLL CALL Members Present: Cindy Finerty, Chairperson Sonia Campbell, Vice Chairperson Sabby Jonathan Jim Lopez � Dave Tschopp Members Absent: None Staff Present: Phil Drell, Director of Community Development Bob Hargreaves, City Attorney Tony Bagato, Planning Tech Mark Diercks, Transportation Engineer Tonya Monroe, Administrative Secretary IV. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Consideration of the March 5, 2002 meeting minutes. Action: It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Jonathan, approving the March 5, 2002 minutes. Motion carried 4-0-1 (Commissioner Lopez abstained►. V. SUMMARY OF COUNCIL ACTION � Mr. Drell summarized pertinent March 14, 2002 City Council actions. MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 i � � VI. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. VII. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Case No. PMW 02-03 - A.R. WOOLWORTH, Applicant Request for approval of a parcel map waiver to combine two lots into one at 74-175 Candlewood Street, APNs 625- 171-007 and 008. Action: It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Lopez, approving the Consent Calendar by minute motion. Motion carried 5-0. a VIII. 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. CUP 01-11 - AT&T WIRELESS/JO HARRISON, Applicant Request for approval of a conditional use permit to construct a telecommunication facility featuring transmitter and receiver poles camouflaged as boulders ranging in height from 7 feet 1 1 inches to 9 feet, and a 336 square foot equipment shelter located in the Hillside Planned Residential District on Upper Way West, southeast of the "cross" structure. Chairperson Finerty asked if there was any additional information from staff other than the request for a continuance to a date uncertain. Mr. Drell said no. ` � � 2 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 �r. Chairperson Finerty o ened the public hearing and asked if anyone wished to speak in FAVOR or OPPOSITION to the proposed project. There was no one. The public hearing was left open and Chairperson Finerty asked for a motion. Action: It was moved by Commissioner Campbell, seconded by Commissioner Tschopp, continuing CUP 01-11 to a date uncertain. Motion carried 5-0. 6. Case No. CUP 85-2 AMENDMENT - KRISTI HANSON for SACRED HEART CHURCH, Applicant Request for approval of an amendment to a conditional use permit to allow the expansion of the Sacred Heart Church parking lot located at the northwest corner of Fred Waring Drive and Deep Canyon, 43-775 Deep Canyon. � Mr. Bagato stated that the applicant was seeking approval of an amendment to the existing conditional use permit allowing the church and school. He indicated that the subject property is located at the northeast corner of Fred Waring and Deep Canyon. He pointed out the location of the four lots. He said that the zoning is R-1 , single family residential, and is surrounded by R-1 as well as Planned Residential to the north with some multifamily around it. He informed commission that the church owns four vacant lots on Florine Avenue. Three would be converted into a parking lot and the fourth would remain a landscaped playground area. The new parking lot was increasing 56 spaces to an existing 384 spaces. The Architectural Review Commission granted preliminary approval to the preliminary landscaped plans. Mr. Bagato stated that the site has frontage on Fred Waring, Deep Canyon and Florine Avenue. It currently has three access points: two entrances/exits on Deep Canyon and one exit only on Deep Canyon. He said it currently has an entrance and exit on Fred Waring Drive. Due to the expansion occurring along Fred Waring, the entrance on Fred Waring would lose access from the left. It would only be a right-turn in and right-turn out. As part of the parking lot expansion, �.. � 3 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 � � the applicant originally proposed a full entrance and exit driveway on Florine Avenue. During the review process, Public Works expressed concern about traffic impacts on the neighborhood so they redesigned the entrance to be an entrance only with "Do Not Enter" signs at the two points. He said they even talked about putting down some kind of a guard on Sundays after mass has started to prevent people leaving into the neighborhood. Due to the eastbound entrance onto Fred Waring, staff felt this would help alleviate some of the traffic on Deep Canyon experienced from the median. For CEQA purposes, Mr. Bagato stated that this is a Class 3 categorical exemption. Once the parking lot is built and the play area is added, there would be a wrought-iron fence around the expansion to help surround the neighborhood. He also said there is an existing wrought-iron fence around the church currently. He stated that this matter was noticed to property owners within 300 feet and was a ten-day notice. He said it was also sent to the newspaper. As well, today staff received some petitions from neighbors around Erin Street. There were six signed letters which had ; been distributed to commission. � Mr. Bagato explained that staff was recommending approval of the entrance only on Florine and expansion of the parking lot because they felt it was compatible with the rest of the neighborhood. Commissioner Campbell informed staff that she didn't receive ihe exhibit map in her packet and asked for the location of the ingress to the parking lot from Florine to be pointed out. Mr. Bagato said the new entrance would be at the fourth parcel, the last one to the south. Commissioner Campbell asked if that fourth parcel was the one which he said was only going to be used as a playground. Mr. Bagato said the farthest one to the north would be used as a playground. Commissioner Campbell asked if the one with the playground was at E�in. Mr. Bagato said that was correct. Commissioner Campbell asked about the location of the existing home. Mr. Bagato said it was just to the south of it. Commissioner Campbell asked where the ingress would be in relationship to the four lots and if it would be between E�in and Velardo. Mr. Bagato confirmed it was between Erin and Velardo at the fourth lot to the south, but was near Velardo close to the existing home. � � d � 4 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 �.. Commissioner Lopez noted that Mr. Bagato mentioned a guard gate or something that could be put down after mass and hadn't seen that mentioned in the staff report. He asked if that was something new that had been added. Mr. Bagato said it was an option that staff had been discussing. Mr. Drell noted that part of the problem was multiple services and how to time the comings and goings with the gate became somewhat impractical. It would be difficult. But if it was that much of a problem, then it was an option. Commissioner Tschopp asked how many feet it was from Florine to the Deep Canyon/Fred Waring intersection. Looking at the plan, M r. Drell estimated over 400 feet. With the current widening of Fred Waring and eastbound traffic, Commissioner Tschopp asked if there would be a left-hand turn onto Deep Canyon and how many cars that would hold. Mr. Diercks confirmed that there was a left-turn on Deep Canyon. It was a full eight-phase signal so it would have a protected left-tum movement. He thought the � pocket was at least 250 feet long which would allow eight to ten cars per cycle for storage keeping. Commissioner Tschopp asked if that was a normal sized turn lane. Mr. Diercks confirmed that it was lengthwise. He indicated they were now aiming for longer pockets than ones they've had in the past and 250 feet was a pretty long pocket. Commissioner Jonathan said he read that there was going to be a cut out in the median on Fred Waring for left-turn access for easterly bound traffic as well. Mr. Diercks said that was correct. There would be a left- turn into Florine only. Commissioner Jonathan pointed out that they would have ihe left-turn lane for Deep Canyon as well as a left-turn for Florine. He asked if those were too close together. Mr. Diercks said there was plenty of room. Florine only had the one left-turn so there wasn't opposing traffic coming from the opposite direction. That traffic would go into the pocket on Deep Canyon. Commissioner Jonathan asked if there was going to be a stack up lane for that left onto Florine. Mr. Diercks thought it was going to be around 250 feet. Raised medians would separate the traffic. Commissioner Jonathan asked if the rest of the access to the site on Deep Canyon would remain unchanged. Mr. Diercks confirmed it would remain as is with no changes. r.. 5 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 Chairperson Finerty o�ened the public hearing and asked the applicant to address the commission. MS. KRISTI HANSON, 44-850 Las Palmas, Suite A, in Palm Desert, addressed the commission. She stated that she is the architect for the church. She said that the church was trying to be a good neighbor. They recognized that they have a bit of a parking problem and they actually owned six sites, and on four of them they removed the homes and were building three levels of parking. She said it was incorrect that they would be putting in a playground for the fourth lot. They didn't know what it was going to be. They were just going to have some wildflowers growing on it until they make that determination. She also stated that they were talking about expanding the school facility and they didn't know if they wanted to use it. It was an open issue. The idea was that they would increase the parking. Ms. Hanson said that originally they weren't going to have an � access off of Florine at all, but it came to her attention that they � were going to be losing their access off of Fred Waring because of the median and her initial concern was to make all of the traffic, which would essentially be 400 cars, go to that one intersection in order to get in and predominately most of the traffic was coming from the westerly side of Palm Desert and that would create a major issue with getting people in and out of the parking lot. So they designed it with an in and out. Then staff said they could only have an ingress which worked out fine for them because it allowed people to get in and then exit at the Fred Waring access point. She said they were going to fence it and it would be beautifully landscaped. She also realized that currently there were a lot of people parking on Florine and maybe some of the side streets because they have a dirt lot and there was easy access across. By adding the parking and having the fence that would predominately be eliminated. Commissioner Lopez noted that the staff report indicated that mass ' starts on Saturday and Sunday at 6:45 a.m. and goes to 5:30 p.m. He asked if there were three on Sunday and what times they were. a � � 6 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMlSSlON MARCH 19, 2002 � Ms. Hanson said they start at 6:45 a.m. on Sunday morning. The last mass is at noon during the day and there was another at 5:30 p.m. There were two masses on Saturday evening at 4:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. She said they were about one hour to an hour and 15 minutes to allow time for people to get in and out of the parking lot. She confirmed that there were no Saturday morning services. Only in the evening and none during the midday on Sunday. Commissioner Jonathan noted that the plans from Ron Gregory indicated that Lot 31 , the northerly lot, was to be used for future classroom spaces. Ms. Hanson said that was a misprint. They honestly did not know what it would be used for. Commissioner Jonathan asked if classes ran concurrently with the services that Ms. Hanson described. i.. Ms. Hanson said no, classes were Monday through Friday. Commissioner Jonathan asked if they have Sunday school. Ms. Hanson said yes, but it was usually parents bringing their kids and going to mass and then the kids go to their little Sunday school and come back to meet their parents. It was not a drop off type of use. Commissioner Jonathan asked for clarification that the specific use for Lot 31 had not been determined. Ms. Hanson concurred. Commissioner Campbell asked if they had made any progress toward acquiring the remaining piece of property. Ms. Hanson said not at this time. She said it was unfortunate because that one property was bordered by their parking, but they � 7 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 were trying to give them a buffer zone with landscaping and would be as good neighbors as they could. Chairperson Finerty asked if anyone wished to speak in FAVOR of the project. There was no one. Chairperson Finerty asked if anyone wished to speak in OPPOSITION. MR. BILL MILLER, 74-361 Erin Street, stated that he believed that even if ihere was just an entrance to that lot, it would impact the neighborhood negatively with a great deal of traffic. Referring to the map he pointed out that there would be a straight shot from Desert Star to Erin Street to that lot and there were no stop signs there. He said there is already a lot of traffic that uses that route. He thought it would be too much for the neighbarhood to bear. In the mornings when he attempts to turn off of Florine Street there is already a problem with traffic because of the school and teaching facility there Monday through Friday. He asked if they would continue being able to make a left-turn off of Florine Street � if this project continues forward or if it would be stopped. � Mr. Diercks said that the left turn out was eliminated from Florine onto Fred Waring. Mr. Drell clarified that the restriction had nothing to do with this project. It was eliminated as a general safety concern with people trying to cross three lanes and up to five and six lanes of traffic in two directions. That was gone no matter what happened. Mr. Miller said it was open now, but that might be due to the construction going on. Mr. Drell said that the widening of Fred Waring had not really occurred yet. Mr. Diercks explained that they have actually added a mid block westbound left-turn out in ihe middle. The purpose was to allow people to turn right from Florine and go westbound and ma ke a U-turn in that pocket and go back east. Mr. Miller thanked the commission for their time. MS. CAROL HUNT, 74-105 Aster Drive, stated that she has lived � there since 1964 and expressed concern. She said it wasn't just � � � 8 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 �..► Sunday traffic, but the traffic during the week for the school. The mothers taking their children to and from school. She lives on Aster, a very wide street. Velardo and Erin are narrower. From Portola, they turn on Desert Star and then they zoom down Aster to Florine. That was her concern. That would be a little freeway there because people were always trying to avoid Fred Waring and the stop light at Portola. She said that there were five little boys that live two doors away from her. Her neighbor next door was raising her little grandson. Her children were ail gone, but there were new children moving into the neighborhood. She didn't think there should be an access on that street. This is a neighborhood and has always been a neighborhood. It has been a neighborhood for a long, long time and they were even talking about maybe using some other lots for more school rooms, so that was more traffic and moms dropping off kids. MS. CAROL ANDERSON, 74-340 Erin Street, stated that they have lived on Erin Street for 27 years and she raised six children � on that street. Even without the crowded neighborhood they have now, it has been a dangerous street because of its straightness and length and cars continually speed up and down it. She was also concerned that the neighborhood traffic would increase a hundred fold. She said she is a teacher and a church goer and she had nothing against this facility, but she had a problem with the access from Florine. When they bought their home there was nothing but homes all the way down Florine. Homes on both sides. Now it was going to be a public access if there was an entrance to that school. To her that was a private school and peopie pay fo� it, so it was kind of commercial in a way, so that was a commercial zone. She knew it was zoned for churches, but that bothered her. She wasn't really sure about that. It is a residential street sort of going commercial. She was also concerned about the notification of this meeting because she found out about it three hours ago. There were seven or eight people who received notices in the mail if they lived 300 feet from that entrance. But this would impact that whole neighborhood. Using the map, she pointed out Fred Waring and the five access points. She said that people already cut through �. 9 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 s � ; �i their neighborhood and there would be even more. She said that children play there and there would be people speeding through there to get to school meetings. It would be the same for church meetings. She said this was the fifth entrance for Sacred Heart School. There were three entrances on Deep Canyon and two on Fred Waring. This is a private school. If they could somehow make traffic flow into Florine, she asked why traffic couldn't flow into Sacred Heart School. She said that people on Aster and Velardo put orange cones out in front of their homes in a feeble attempt to slow down speeding people so their little kids could play in the street. They had traffic going through there to get to the high school. She didn't want people from Rancho Mirage cutting through their neighborhood to get to Sacred Heart School. It wasn't going to happen if she had anything to do with it. She was concerned about the public notice. Ms. Anderson stated that she called KMIR and KESQ. No one knew about this meeting. No one in this neighborhood knew about it. She went around all day walking and no one knew anything about it. Before any decision was made, she thought that the rest � of the neighborhood needed to be told to see how they feel about it. The neighborhood was already impacted from people cutting through to get to schools. She said that both KMIR and KESQ wanted her to report to them what happened tonight. They got such late notice. She said she knew about it an hour ago that they couldn't send anyone to attend the meeting, but they felt the same way about it. She stated that she had nothing against the school. She thought it was a great church and wanted this school to grow just like St. Margaret's in Palms Springs. But St. Margaret's didn't have any access into neighborhoods. And they had fund raisers and it was a big, growing concern. They should have the same thing here. That was nothing but a plus for our city. But to have the access to all of these fund raisers and programs that would be going on here coming off of a little neighborhood street and cars zooming to get to their meetings was not appropriate, not by any stretch of the imagination. She couldn't begin to imagine how this could be there. She said she knew this wasn't on the general plan because she called the planning commission a couple of times and it seemed like they should have had some more notice. She called �i 10 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 �., about it three or four times over the last year and she was always told that it was going to be a greenbelt and a fence which was fine with her. There would be a greenbelt there and that was all. All of a sudden in two months time that has changed and no one was notified. She said she lives about 310 feet away from the entrance so she didn't get a notice. She said she went out and walked it off today. She said that once again she had a problem with not knowing about it. She knew the church architect and with all due respect to them and the people planning this nice thing for their school and church, but to not respect this little neighborhood that has children playing was a travesty. She suggested that they look at this a little bit more and not vote tonight and let more people know about it so that this wouldn't be a short cut any more than it is already. She said they were all aware of the problem with Rutledge. That was a nightmare. That was what the people said at KESQ. They asked if this was going to be another Rutledge and she replied yes, it looked like it. She thought that school would grow like crazy, like it should. That ,,�, would be nothing but good. But at the same time once that enirance was there it was there and the larger that school got the more traffic they would have. She proposed that they not vote on it now so that they wouldn't have to appeal it later. She again expressed her strong disappointment that they didn't receive notification. MS. CONCETTO TRiSCHITTA, 74-380 Velardo, said that she was in the house directly across the lot on Velardo. She said she didn't receive notification but her neighbors were gracious enough to inform her of this. She waited patiently for her notification but it didn't come. She informed commission that she has three children ages 12, 10 and 2%2. As Ms. Anderson pointed out, she also thought it was good that the school is growing and if there was a fence, she had no problem with a fence. It was beautiful. But an entrance was scary because the last several weeks more people were going to the church and as they got more and more into the season, there was more and more influx of people. People have � been parking all along their streets. They wanted to get to church, but at the same time she was worried. People across the street had six grandchildren with them. Three to four houses around her r... 11 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 ' had at least 15 kids and they did play out there in the afternoon. She was constantly out there because she was worried. She hoped the commission would take into consideration the children population. She remembered when she was young getting into trouble because she ran across the street and almost got hit by a car. As children, they didn't think about the danger. She would hate for a situation to happen, to her children or someone elses. She hoped they would consider that. MR. DOUGLAS HUNT, 74-105 Aster, said that they live about mid way on Aster Drive and that was about the high speed mark for people traveling in either direction. People were already using their street to avoid Portola and Fred Waring. They already had a speeding problem. This new access would just accentuate that. They would have more and more traffic to the school going up Velardo and Aster and Aster especially because it is a wide street that is already a raceway at times, particularly in the mornings and evenings. That is when people are transmitting their children back ' and forth to school. It was really a traffic problem right now and it would just triple when the school opens that entrance. He said he didn't have any small kids, but as noted by others, it was a small community and kids were still playing in the streets and cats were running around. It was a dangerous situation now and was just going to get worse if this was opened up to a lot more traffic. MS. LORETTA ALDERETE, 74-360 Velardo, agreed with the comments that were expressed. She said she doesn't have kids, but there were tons of kids playing in the streets and they have a traffic problem. They didn't need more traffic accumulating in their area. Chairperson Finerty asked if the applicant would like to address any of the expressed concerns. Ms. Hanson readdressed the commission. She noted that Father Howard Lincoln was present and he could address the school concerns. She summarized earlier comments. She said that primarily their function for having the parking lot and the access ` point was for the church. It wasn't for the school access, it was � 12 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 r.. for church. Father Lincoln said it wasn'rt for the school at all. Ms. Hanson said the reason for that was because they have a large influx of people coming in and a large influx of people going out at all these different masses. If it was during the day or during the week, there was a possibility they would consider closing that access point off during the week and only have it open on Saturdays and Sundays if that would be an acceptable alternative. But that was the primary reason for it, for church. HOWARD LINCOLN, Pastor of the Sacred Heart Church at 43-775 Deep Canyon Road, addressed the cornmission. He said he had bible study and apologized for arriving late. He clarified that the access point had nothing to do with the school and they would be happy to put up a gate and close it du�ing the week. On Saturday it would be open for approximately one hour from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and only during the season. He said they didn't need that additional parking off season. On Sunday it would be open from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. During the course of the week they � could close it off except for approximately five hours. Chairperson Finerty asked Father Lincoln if he or other members of the church involved with this project had an opportunity to meet with the neighbors. Father Lincoln said no, they did not and he was sorry they didn't. He didn't anticipate any difficulties. He said the use would be for approximately five hours and would be during the course of the season. Chairperson Finerty thanked him and closed the pubfic hearing. Chairperson Finerty asked for commission comments. Commissioner Jonathan said there was obviously a conflict of needs. The neighborhood needs had been articulately expressed by the neighbors that had shown up. He stated that he was very sympathetic to those concerns. On the other hand, the church had a need for adequate circulation for the additional parking and the success it is experiencing. From what he had heard, he was agreeing with the neighbors for the reason that we could effectively mitigate their concerns by closing off � 13 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 access to the parking lot. The need for circulation could be mitigated with the other access points. Essentially the other access points could adequately serve the church's needs. It might not be ideal, but it would work, whereas there was no compromise for their neighbors' needs which included safety, reduced traffic and so forth. If he had to vote tonight, subject to what the other commissioners said and the possibility he would be persuaded otherwise, he would be inclined to be in favor of the parking lot and all the other aspects, but not the access on Florine. The other possibility would be to allow the church to work with the neighbors to come up with a compromise where there is access, but limited. They heard testimony that it would be a few hours per week. He wouldn't have an objection if the neighbors felt that was a safe situation. That was the other possibility. Commissioner Campbell thought that Father Lincoln clarified the situation when he stated that on Saturday those gates would probably only be open a couple of hours and on Sunday only a few hours. The gate would be closed during the week when school was in session since it was only ' for church purposes. She also pointed out that there has been testimony in the past where people say that there were problems and something couldn't be done because their children play in the street. The answer to that was that children weren't supposed to play in the street, although they do it. For her it wasn't a convincing argument. If the gates were installed and it was only accessible for a few hours on weekends, she wouldn't have a problem with the access. Commissioner Lopez thanked everyone for coming to the meeting and expressing their concerns. He stated that this situation uncovered a couple of concerns he himself had which included the speed of traffic traveling down Aster and the other streets. He said he was a little familiar with Aster since his son has a friend that lives there and he has witnessed a lot of cars on that road traveling fast. He wasn't sure that closure of the access during the week would alleviate the concerns regarding school traffic. The school has been there a long time and there were no plans right now to expand the school. The parking was to take care of the increased demand on Saturdays and Sundays. But he wasn't opposed if there was an opportunity for the church and the neighborhood to spend some time together to work out some of these concerns. He 3 wouldn't be opposed if this was continued to give them that opportunity. � � 14 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 +r. He thought part of the problem could be eliminated by limiting the access to Saturday nights and Sunday mornings. He hoped the increased parking would eliminate the parking on the streets that occurs on Sundays. But there were people that were set in their ways and they could build another 500 spaces and people would still want to park there. Hopefully they would move into the parking area. Overall he didn't have a problem with the expansion of the parking lot, but wasn't opposed to the church and neighborhood getting together to discuss the different topics. Commissioner Tschopp said he saw this a little differently. It was a classic problem that Palrn Desert faces now and would continue to face in the future as commercial development encroaches on residential areas. What they have is a predominately single family neighborhood facing a commercial development. A church that is very successful and which would hopefully continue to be successful. His view was that the City should protect the neighborhoods from encroaching commercial traffic. There was a comment made about Rutledge. Rutledge was a problem created by the school district which didn't come under the City to control � or counsel them on their traffic and they had complained about that and had people come before them to complain about it and here they were kind of creating the same problem. They have a very successful school. He hoped it continued to be successful. But he thought by opening that ingress/egress there they were creating another problem that we have had complaints about in other school areas. There are two major roads there: Fred Waring and Deep Canyon with adequate exits to those major thoroughfares and he didn't see the need for another one that would truly be used by people trying to cut through from Portola to get into the development and would use predominately these single family neighborhoods. He was in favor of the parking lot and he thought that was a good move by the church. There is a parking problem there. There was also a traffic problem there. And it was great step. But he thought they should keep the traffic from the single family neighborhood. Other churches in Palm Desert that abut major thoroughfares have fewer exits and still have problems and will continue to have problems. The good that would happen by having the entry on Florine would not offset the bad. � Chairperson Finerty stated that she concurred with Commissioner Tschopp and with Commissioner Jonathan. She thought the residential ` . 15 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 area should be left as is and agreed that the parking lot expansion is good. Her concern was the increase in traffic. They have dealt with this issue before, however, if the applicant wanted to meet with the residents to see if the�e was any way to work on a solution or the applicant could decide that the access onto Florine was not needed. She said in that case she would welcome a continuance. Commissioner Jonathan applauded the applicant for taking the initiative in creating additiona{ parking. There were a number of situations within the city and throughout the Coachella Valley where parking is inadequate and here they were of their own volition without being mandated to do so taking care of that problem. He had been persuaded, particularly by Commissioner Tschopp's comments, and he was now looking at it in a diffe�ent way. He believed they had an opportunity to protect the neighborhood from an incursion of an undesirable impact by simply closing off and preventing access to the residential neighborhood. The mo�e he thought about it the more he realized it was just not necessary. There were adequate access points and they didn't need an additional one that would create problems in a residential neighborhood that is populated with children and adults who also deserve a safe environment. He stated that he would like to move approval of the application subject to a limitation on any access on Florine. Action: It was moved by Commissioner Jonathan, seconded by Commissioner Tschopp, approving the findings as presented by staff. Motion carried 5- 0. It was moved by Commissioner Jonathan, seconded by Commissioner Tschopp, adopting Planning Commission Resolution No. 2121 approving CUP 85-2 Amendment, subject to conditions as amended. Motion carried 5-0. IX. MISCELLANEOUS None. � , � � 16 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 �..► X. COMMITTEE MEETING UPDATES A. ART IN PUBLIC PLACES - (No meeting) B. CIVIC CENTER STEERING COMMITTEE - (No meeting) C. DESERT WILLOW COMMITTEE - (No meeting) D. GENERAL PLAN ADVISORY COMMITTEE - (March 7, 2002) Chairperson Finerty stated that they talked about Geotechnical, Drainage and Hydrology issues. E. LANDSCAPE COMMITTEE - (No meeting) F. PROJECT AREA 4 COMMITTEE - (March 18, 2002) Chairperson Finerty said they discussed the park going in on � Country Club and she found the name of the park most interesting. It would be known as Freedom Park. Commissioner Jonathan thought that was a wonderful name and the other commissioners agreed. G. PALM DESERT/RANCHO MIRAGE MONTEREY AVENUE CORRIDOR PLANNING WORK GROUP - (No meeting) H. ZONING ORDINANCE REVIEW COMMITTEE - (No meeting) XI. COMMENTS Chairperson Finerty noted that the April 2, 2002 meeting was canceled. The next meeting would be April 16, 2002. ... 17 MINUTES PALM DESERT PLANNING COMMISSION MARCH 19, 2002 - XII. ADJOURNMENT It was moved by Commissioner Jonathan, seconded by Commissioner Lopez, adjourning the meeting. Motion carried 5-0. The meeting was adjourned at 7:52 p.m. PHILIP DRELL�Secretary ATTEST: � �� �� � . �`�` Y.' �--�' ,. -- . L' `--���i;'4L� G(. -�"������j„�. ,,�� , . + ' . CY HIA FINERTY, Chairpersor� Palm Desert Planning Commission /tm � � 18