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stores, and so forth. Five hundred units of hard working people, tax payers, will bring the money and the traffic downtown." In response to Planning Commission questions regarding definitions of moderate and low income households, Director Church said that it is based on the median income in the county, and moderate income goes up to 120% of the median, which is approximately $65,000 per year for a family of four, indexed by family size. Very low income goes down to 50-60% of the median income. Mayor Hartnett* thanked the Planning Commission for the opportunity to participate in this discussion. He said, "The concept that has been presented tonight is an excellent one for the entire site. It is important, that while there's been an emphasis in some of the remarks from the development team about the openness to Sequoia Station, that there be an openness to the civic center area and the downtown in some measurable way. .. I think this is intended, but I think it bears close scrutiny so that it doesn't appear to be a walled off fortress. There isn't a wall and this doesn't tend to be a fortress, but we need to make sure that we don't have a visual impression that it is, as the trains go down the track and people view the entire area... Secondly, I think this plan takes into consideration children's play area. I think it's irnportant that it not be sterile, not just be a couple of play things for kids to slide down. Again, I think it is intended to be more than that, but it is important that this be children friendly, and that the open space is designed in such a way that it is usable. Not just something to look at or to walk through... Thirdly, I think that the open space nature of it is important, but a lot of the use of the open space and the productivity of it is going to be based on the master plan of the whole project. I'm hopeful that the balance of the appropriate density will be such that we can... still have the feeling of a sense of openness, not just from the pedestrians walking through, but for people using the open space in a productive way. I think it is not reasonable to expect that for a project of this size if it were to go forward, that the Redevelopment Agency would not be involved. The number of parcels and the complexity of this appear... to indicate... it would not be unlikely that the Redevelopment Agency would be involved, and I think it is somewhat Polyannish to say 'stay out of it.' Sequoia Station would not be in existence without the Redevelopment Agency. And that was a very long process that required Council... sitting as the Redevelopment Agency Board exercising a great amount of patience and discipline before that project could proceed and ultimately be built.... This (project) is one that was not anticipated, and still may not happen, but it was one that was not anticipated at this time by the Council, the Commission or Planning folks. The market has changed and the opportunity is here, and I think we have to make judicious use of the market opportunity, to make sure that something like this is possible, but that it also takes into account our policies and goals. Affordable housing is an issue. If it ends up as a Redevelopment Agency involved project we know what the legal requirements are. But there are a number of ways of accommodating those, some of which include affordable housing opportunities off the site... We ought not to be narrow how we look at this. We ought to take advantage of it as a potentially great opportunity for creative thinking not for narrow minded thinking. Finally there were a number of comments by at least one of the development teams about retail on El Camino.... I'd be interested to know the development's team view of what kind of retail, how much and who PLANNING COMMISSION STUDY SESSION WITH COUNCIL PARTICIPATION OCTOBER21,1997 STUDY SESSION MEETING MINUTES MINUTE BOOK NO. 55 PAGE 6 Page No. 608