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Scott Morton, representing the Parks and Recreation Commission as Chairperson, stated that Redwood City has less acreage per capita of active park space than the average for Peninsula cities. He stated that park space can be found in many forms including plazas, tot lot playgrounds and pocket parks all of which are part of an urban environment. He further stated that this plan represents an opportunity for Council to make a positive impact on the overall amount of park space to the residents of Redwood City. Peggy Bruggmann, resident of the Centennial neighborhood just on the north side of Brewster, she stated that from her neighborhood's perspective she does not think neither option B or C adequately protect the single family neighborhood on Brewster and toward Stambaugh - Heller. Her suggestion is rather than immediately going to 97 or 92 foot with 8 stories, that there be a transition from 3 to 6 on the backside of that block and then to 8 stories. Freedman spoke about the arts district and Main Street. Public Comment: Kay Watanabe and Donna Williams of the Civic Cultural Commission heading the subcommittee on public art, expressed their excitement about the integration of the arts into the precise plan. She stated that the strategic plan includes the downtown because it is a priority and they either advocate, fund, broker or help provide for vital cultural life in Redwood City. An example of success in supporting the downtown is in the Downtown Live concert series and a survey of participants resulted in 100% recommending the series to a friend, 82% indicated that they ate at a downtown restaurant or visited a downtown business as part of their concert experience. Non residents comprise 38% of the audience which helped increase our neighbors' awareness of the positive changes in our downtown and brought additional businesses to our community. They stated their interest in seeing either public art, an arts district or loft artist housing in order to integrate the arts into the precise plan. Kurt Anderson applauded the City and congratulated the staff and consultants for their work. He stated that there should be an allowance for design professionals and staff to create buildings that Redwood City is worthy of. He stated that to arbitrarily apply numbers of stories takes away the opportunity to look at how the buildings interface with the surrounding uses, buildings, and size of parcel as it relates to another parcel. He summarized that there needs to be latitude and design responsibility to the people who are going to create and impact the community so it forces the designers to do the best job possible. Recess: 9:10 -9:25 p.m, JOINT CITY COUNCIL STUDY SESSION WITH PLANNING COMMISSION AND ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW COMMITTEE MINUTES MINUTES BOOK NO. 61 Page No. 18 OCTOBER 3, 2005 PAGE 5