Pre-App - PD for 53 Townhomes - 2008Community Development Department
To: Chair Roseberry and Members of the
Planning Commission
Date: May 13, 2008
From: Jackie C. Young Lind, Acting Community Development Director
Subject: 230, 280 & 282 Dillon Avenue ~ Proposed Townhouse Development
- Study Session
BACKGROUND
On April 22, 2008, the Planning Commission held a Study Session (reference
Attachment 1, Briefing Book) to review a proposal to develop 53 townhouses
(predominantly four stories with a few 5-story penthouses) on the existing Biddle
Roofing property (a 1.93 acre site) located at the terminus of Dillon Avenue. The
Planning Commission expressed the following concerns:
• project density given the closed nature of the site orientation and lack of
street presence;
• inadequacy of parking;
• circulation issues (e.g., dead-end at guest parking area and long length of fire
access road along creek trail);
• landscaping methods to be employed on a podium deck for common court
yard; and,
• proper, future calculation of floor area ratio with penthouses.
The Planning Commission suggested that the applicant return for a second study
session with:
• : ~ contextual information;
• charette sketches of alternative site plans considered and abandoned with
. narrative explanation;
• over lay elevations to show front and back building relationships;
• pedestrian view of project from Dillon; and,
• riparian comments from the Water District.
May 13, 2008
Page 2
APPLICANT RESPONSE
On May 6, 2008, the applicant submitted a letter and revised Plan Set (reference
Attachment 2). The letter is a narrative describing their site planning process. The
revised Plan Set includes the previously submitted site plan and floor plans as well as
the following new sheets:
• a topographic site plan with surrounding structure footprints (Sheet A-1 );
• a landscape plan (Sheet A-2a);
• streetscape elevation with silhouettes of existing buildings on Dillon Avenue
(Sheet A-8);
• . an alternative circulation plan (Sheet A-11);
• alternative entry plans (Sheet A-12);
• an alternative parking plan (Sheet A-13);
• colored aerials;
• area photographs; and
• massing studies.
REQUESTED INPUT
Major issues regarding this project proposal for continuing discussion include, but are
not limited to:
• limited site ingress/egress;
• relationship to the street (i.e.; limited frontage);
• project mass and scale (especially as it relates to the creek trail); and,
• adequacy of parking.
The applicant will give a power point presentation at this study session, and the
Commission's discussion of the project issues will follow.
NEXT STEPS
Given the scope of the proposed project in a transitioning area of the City, City Council
and Parks and Recreation Commission study sessions should follow:
ATTACHMENTS
1. Planning Commission Briefing Book, dated April 22, 2008.
2. Second Project Plan Submittal, dated May 6, 2008.