August 14, 2024 Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

4 (Pages 10 to 13)4 (Pages 10 to 13) Page 10 1 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Yeah. 2 MR. APPEL: Okay, great. 3 (Whereupon Council President Rutherford 4 joined the meeting.) 5 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Hang on one second. 6 Let the record show Council President Rutherford 7 joined the Board. 8 MR. APPEL: So on this exhibit, we 9 have taken each of the elevations from the Planning 10 Board set and we have appended a blue line and that 11 blue line is across here (indicating), and that blue 12 line represents the line of conformance with the 13 ordinance. So there was a metric of 50 percent of 14 exposure and we had -- Mr. Anderson, during his site 15 testimony, had explained that due to grading 16 conditions and not having walls, that -- and there's 17 a lot of changes in topography, that the exposure on 18 some of the buildings varies and was triggering 19 above that 50 percent, so what we're showing in here 20 is that this line, if this is conforming, then what 21 is below the line between this line and grade is, 22 um, is what the relief that is being requested is, 23 and we explained the whys and the hows, but I think, 24 graphically, this shows more of a picture. And as 25 you can see, as you scroll through all of these -- Page 12 1 where the maintenance building is on the site, which 2 is kind of over where the north arrow is on the, uh, 3 on the map. So these areas have very little 4 visibility, and now I'm going to switch to the last 5 page of the exhibit that is going to show -- what we 6 did is we blew up that area at center where we had 7 the worst of the exposure and put some color on 8 this, and one of the things that we were talking 9 about when we -- on testimony last time was that, 10 where we had these areas that were dropped because, 11 in this particular case, we're exposing a second 12 level of the -- of a garage below the building, and 13 why did we do this? Because it was -- grade was 14 taking us there. It was -- we're putting these 15 buildings on a site that has a bunch of topography, 16 and when we balance off getting all the vehicular 17 circulation to work and all the pedestrian 18 circulation to work, we have to get all the grade to 19 match up or else we're going to end up with a series 20 of retaining walls all over the place, which I think 21 would be worse, so we concentrated on the 22 architecture in here, and in these lower exposed 23 areas, we

e're going to end up with a series 20 of retaining walls all over the place, which I think 21 would be worse, so we concentrated on the 22 architecture in here, and in these lower exposed 23 areas, we started creating -- in the openings that 24 are for natural ventilation, we started creating 25 what we're calling these "green walls," and that's Page 11 1 as you scroll through all of these elevations, 2 there's not an awful lot that is -- that is below 3 that blue line. That blue line, in certain cases, 4 based on grade, is that it creates -- this area, for 5 instance, is Elevation C facing the clubhouse, and 6 I'm going to show a larger version of this because I 7 think it will be helpful to explain how we're 8 addressing this and how we're treating this 9 elevation. 10 So what -- what we have in here is this 11 is the area, that blue line is representative of 12 conforming, and in some cases, when you come to the 13 ends, you can see that there is a broader piece and 14 this is exactly the point that we're making, is 15 that, as the topography changes, there was 16 importance and reason to follow that. 17 Now, some of these areas are exposed 18 and some of the areas are not exposed. So for 19 instance, I'm showing an area for Building A-2 20 elevation. If you can zoom back out, please. And 21 then A-2. These are all keyed in -- these are the 22 end caps of the elevations in here so that you can 23 see. This is Tag 4. So this is on the left side of 24 the building, so the only people that will really 25 see this are residents coming into the building and Page 13 1 what I referred to, where we're taking and growing 2 vegetation up from planters through what would have 3 been just a guardrail to help soften these areas. 4 In addition to that, remember there is 5 -- there are foundation plantings along the building 6 as well as street trees or, I'm not going to call 7 them street trees because this is really an access 8 aisle, but there -- there are trees in here as well. 9 We've drawn these trees semi-transparent as a blend 10 because, in the winter, they're going to have less 11 foliage; in the summer, they will have more, so this 12 was sort of getting you to a place halfway between. 13 And then what -- also another element 14 brought up was about -- one of the Board members had 15 suggested adding tree islands in the parking areas, 16 and I think this

to a place halfway between. 13 And then what -- also another element 14 brought up was about -- one of the Board members had 15 suggested adding tree islands in the parking areas, 16 and I think this would only further, if we're smart 17 on where we place these -- these additional trees in 18 the island, it's only going to provide another -- 19 still another layer of greenery and landscaping, so 20 we have potentially the tree islands in the parking 21 area plus these additional trees at the building, 22 then layered beyond that is the foundation 23 landscaping, and then beyond that in some of these 24 openings is what I'll call "the green wall" or 25 "green facade." And again, this was what we