August 14, 2024 Planning Board Special Meeting Transcript - WEHI

7 (Pages 22 to 25)7 (Pages 22 to 25) Page 22 1 looking at the full height of the building. 2 MR. APPEL: That's correct. And to 3 the right. But over here, grade starts ticking back 4 -- back upwards. 5 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Council President 6 Rutherford. 7 COUNCILMAN RUTHERFORD: Thank you, 8 Chairman. I'm not sure that I understood the answer 9 to the question, so either Mr. Hess or Mr. Haizel, 10 what is the purpose for having the code this way in 11 the first place? Is it a safety issue? Is it a 12 stability issue; what is this, you know, this 13 foundation exposure percentage; why is that the 14 recommendation in the first place? And then -- and 15 I have a couple follow-ups. 16 MR. HAIZEL: My sense of it is the 17 area that's being affected by this is the parking 18 floor, the parking garage, and the intent, in my 19 opinion, of that would be so that there was a very 20 limited amount of that part of the building you see, 21 which is why I asked the question about the height. 22 If I were standing up at the bottom of that lowest 23 point, I would see one level of parking, another 24 level of parking, then the entire building, which is 25 a much different experience rather than if you were Page 24 1 50 percent of the first floor? It's a hundred 2 percent of the first floor. Right? It looks like 3 -- 4 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Let him calculate -- 5 MR. KLEIN: Yeah. 6 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: -- and then he'll 7 answer your question. 8 MR. APPEL: I believe that will be -- 9 I believe from that low point in here to the rooftop 10 will be 67 feet. 11 UNIDENTIFIED VOICE: Just from the 12 blue line, you're asking, right? 13 COUNCILMAN RUTHERFORD: From the blue. 14 MR. APPEL: So I'm going to basically, 15 not from the -- not from the blue but from the 16 bottom where grade is all the way up to the top of 17 the roof. Is that what you're asking? 18 COUNCILMAN RUTHERFORD: So that wasn't 19 what I was asking but that is a follow-up question 20 because that gets to the actual height of the 21 building as experienced from people walking at that 22 level, but what I wanted to know, and this is a 23 different way of asking the same question Mr. Klein 24 asked. I wanted to know what the height is from 25 where the grade is on this drawing to where it Page 23 1 standing at grade level, maybe at one level of 2 garage, and then the building. 3 COUNCILMAN RUTHERFORD: Okay. 4 MR. HAIZEL: So I

ht is from 25 where the grade is on this drawing to where it Page 23 1 standing at grade level, maybe at one level of 2 garage, and then the building. 3 COUNCILMAN RUTHERFORD: Okay. 4 MR. HAIZEL: So I think it's trying to 5 avoid that sense of being larger than it is type of 6 thing. That's -- that's -- that's my sense of the 7 intent of it. 8 COUNCILMAN RUTHERFORD: Got it. So 9 following up on that, do we know what the height is 10 from the lowest point where you are seeking this 11 variance to where the grade would be? So in this 12 particular -- the top drawing that you have, that's 13 Building C, elevation south. From the lowest point 14 in that dip to where grade should be, according to 15 code, do we know what that height is? 16 MR. APPEL: Bear with me one moment 17 because I want to -- rather than -- it'll be easier 18 for me to look at it on my computer, if I can zoom 19 in. 20 MR. KLEIN: So say again, that blue 21 line represents -- 22 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Wait. 23 MR. KLEIN: I'm sorry. 24 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Mr. Klein. 25 MR. KLEIN: That blue line represents Page 25 1 should be, which I think is the blue line. 2 MR. APPEL: Correct. That -- that is 3 going to be closer to 67 minus 12, so 55. 4 COUNCILMAN RUTHERFORD: So 12 is the 5 number I was looking for. 6 MR. APPEL: And by the way, your 7 height is 75 feet permitted, so all these heights 8 are below, you know, we're talking about heights, 9 but all of these are below the height and the height 10 is permitted to be measured from the first 11 residential floor upward. So even if we take -- and 12 we took that height measurement down to that lower 13 point, we're still within the ordinance. 14 COUNCILMAN RUTHERFORD: So from the 15 bottom -- the lowest point to the top is 67 feet and 16 you're allowed to go 75. 17 (Whereupon Mayor McCartney joined the 18 meeting.) 19 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Hang on. Jamilet, 20 let the record show that Mayor McCartney joined the 21 Board. All right, go ahead, Mr. Appel. 22 (Inaudible discussion) 23 MR. KLEIN: Yeah, so can I -- 24 CHAIRMAN BAGOFF: Mr. Klein. 25 MR. KLEIN: To me, I thought I would