AC = Andrew Crabtree, planning staff
AK = Ash Kalra, Planning Commissioner
XC = Xavier Campos, Planning Commission Chair
JZ = James Zito, Planning Commissioner


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AC:  Staff would not oppose moving the park to the edge along Research Place. 

AK:  The semi-circular park shape - although the five acres technically can be checked off and the overlay requirement is satisfied in regards to five acres, it is not conducive for programming for park uses, but rather in the way that it’s formed is more conducive for traffic flow. In looking at the second paragraph on page 8 it indicates "The shape allows for interim street network and a long term street network per the neighborhood master plan that meets City design standards. The semi-circular park also provides a formal park frontage for three of the proposed residential buildings and a spoke and wheel pattern for the new streets.  The trade off is that the semi-circular shape is somewhat more challenging to program for park uses."  And so it seems like really the majority of the benefits of this shape go more into how it fits into the roadways, and the spokes that would come out of it.  And so my question is why would staff approve of this design as opposed to the one that would be more of a square shape that’s further east towards Research Place? 

(editorial note from Erik: Obviously he was not satisfied with Staff’s response.  In a email sent after the meeting, Commissioner Kalra wrote the following:  "Frankly, the first time I read the staff report, it seemed apparent that the park designed the way the developer wanted it was not conducive to neighborhood uses.  I appreciate you and the entire community putting your time, thought and energy into representing the neighborhood and bringing forward serious concerns.") 

XC:  I have a follow up on that so that I understand this better.  Let’s say they do acquire that parcel across the street.  Does that mean that they are going to reduce that semi-circle park to four acres, and one acre would be across the street? 
AC:  Yes, that would be the result of that.  Correct.  That’s the intent.  That they could then essentially develop four and then one across the street, and then the other two parcels on the north side of River Oaks would make the rest of that triangle where if those redevelop there would be the ability to go ahead and essentially move River Oaks up and build out and have the one, contiguous six to seven acre park.  
XC:  So they wouldn’t be required to instead of a one acre park across the street to go two acres, because on the diagram that we saw it’s labeled as one plus… there wouldn’t be a requirement to make that bigger, because realistically, what can you do really with a one acre park?  Wouldn’t it be better to just have a five acre park that’s just all in one place?
XC:  Okay, well I’d rather see the five acre half moon stay five acres and then add an acre or two on the other side.

JZ: What I see is that’s there’s still a lot of uncertainty, at least on the Commission.  I certainly have a lot of concerns.  So I’m going to move that our recommendation to City Council is that they defer this item until further work can be done on a master plan with and including the community. I think we’ve heard a lot of input from the community.  They’re eager to work with this.  I think that it’s good that we have concerned citizens.  I think we’re going to get a lot of good ideas from the community, and I think there are a lot of unanswered questions that up until this point we had 720 units that are more or less zoned.  We now have a fairly large chunk - 1900 units - and it’s about the time that we need to say, "You know what? We need to look at the bigger picture." So that’s my motion.  That we recommend to City Council a deferral.  
XC:  Okay, so there’s a motion to recommend a deferral to City Council on this item. Is there a particular time frame?
JZ:  Well, until a master plan is accomplished.

JZ:  So master plan would be a reasonably certain deliberation to identify see sites for parks, schools, and other public facilities, and that it is done prior to proposed conversion.  So in other words we want to understand conceptually where the schools would be - first of all finding out what the particular needs are going to be for this particular phase - parks, police stations, all the public facilities that are necessary.  So for me, master planning is to identify those essential services and conceptually where they’re going to be located given what land is going to be included in this particular phase.  


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