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. I II . I . - In response to Planning Commissioners' questions, Community Development Director - Nelson said the treatment of medians is one of the items the City is intending to pursue with the State (CalTrans.) She said it is her understanding that once the permit process is completed, the State is ok with changes to medians, but that can be a long, long process, and the State would require the City to maintain all improved medians. Council Members expressed support for both El Camino Real Specific Plans, saying they contained good, strong recommendations, and suggested that additional improvements might be added to make them stronger, such as: more landscaping, working with the County along southem El Camino Real, the use of a subcommittee, buy-in from the merchants, and very importantly, putting teeth into code enforcement. They suggested the subcommittee not reinvent the wheel, but enhance the existing Plans. There were additional suggestions for a unified look along EI Camino Real and more trees. Planning Commissioners stressed the need for a commitment to strong maintenance programs to prevent improvements from deteriorating, citing the medians as primary offenders. There were additional comments regarding the impacts of the differing masses of the buildings along El Camino Real, liability as well as maintenance of medians, auto or pedestrian orientation, image, and the need for a concept of what the City really wanted as an overall theme, or series of themes for El Camino Real, and the feasibility of imposing a conceptual plan on such a large and varied corridor. - In response to Planning Commissioners' questions, Senior Planner Jany said one way to address the conceptual issue was to "look at visual landmarks, and focus on key sites that have such an impact, and look at the smaller ones with lesser focus, because they are so small that if you do one storefront on those you can barely see it. But if you do a large, corner building... that would have a tremendous impact on the environment along El Camino Real." Community Development Director Nelson said the County has not allowed a City to put a design overlay on its commercial districts, but the County has allowed residential standards to be developed, and the City and County have had preliminary discussions with County staff. She suggested including Council and Commission Members in future talks, and said she believed there is enthusiasm around the City helping the County to improve the image of that part of El Camino Real. Council Members agreed that was a path worth pursuing. MEMO 10/21/97 Commissioner Pine agreed with the sense of urgency he believed everyone present felt about this issue, although he said there were a few other issues as important as this. He suggested a representative from CalTrans, Sequoia High School and one from the County should be on the subcommittee. He agreed it was important not to get bogged down in the - SPECIAL CITY COUNCILIPLANNING COMMISSION STUDY SESSION OCTOBER20,1997 STUDY SESSION MEETING MINUTES MINUTE BOOK NO. 55 PAGES Page No. 589