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Planning Commission Regular Meeting Minutes August 18, 2020 Page 9 concerns of the assurance of affordability or concerns about assurances over the parking 1 supply. 2 3 Commissioner Morita thought from his perspective, it was assurance of affordability as the 4 key factor for him, but he would have taken into consideration effort over any one of those 5 issues that was brought up. 6 7 Commissioner Erickson agreed with Commissioner Rude that parking did seem to be the big 8 issue, aside from affordability. He thought parking was a huge concern in terms of future 9 marketability of this site. He thought one thing the Commission failed to consider was the 10 assumption that the residents would be mass transit and since the pandemic started he read 11 that mass transit use has gone down eighty to ninety percent. Once the pandemic ends maybe 12 mass transit levels will go to the pre-pandemic levels, but they do not know that. Maybe there 13 will be this new paradigm where mass transit is not used to the degree it was before the 14 pandemic so that would kind of negate the studies that were done. He felt that parking was 15 the biggest concern he had that could be remedied. 16 17 Commissioner Neumann stated she did not think they were thinking about the environment 18 with the 1.2 parking spots and pollution. There is the aspect of reducing the number of 19 vehicles per household to consider since they also want to be a more livable Village and not 20 just encouraging public transport but also encouraging biking. She thought that a lot of 21 concerns people share as far as there being no changes since the work session, the applicant 22 focused on the feedback given. She was there but was unable to speak because she was muted 23 but this is the feedback the Commission gave to the applicant. The applicant came back with 24 a more streamlined project, but it is the same thing. She did not hear anything about racial 25 equity, but she is not crying about it. She did not know what else the Commission is 26 expecting. 27 28 Mr. Holst explained regarding the work session, they absolutely looked at everything. What 29 they are trying to do here is extremely bad on the financial side. Certainly with the pandemic 30 and everything that has been happening, the terrorists in place, price of lumber, everything is 31 working against them right now. Even if this is reduced by one unit, it kills the deal. He 32 stated they absolutely looked at everything. He noted they cannot add more parking. He 33 would like to try to enclose parking but if they went with enclosed parking on that side they 34 would lose a stall or two so there is a lot of things that were evaluated, based on the feedback 35 and comments at the work session. He stated this site has been vacant since 2006 and has 36 already been zoned and many developers have looked at this site and passed it by because it is 37 really hard to make a .85-acre site work. It is extremely hard to do and what they are trying to 38 do is find a creative solution here. 39 40 Commissioner Neumann indicated this would be a no for her because it does not deal with 41 racial equity. 42 43 Commissioner Erickson asked if it was too late to second the motion. Chair Westrick thought 44 it was but was not sure. 45 46