Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Let's test. Okay. Regular meeting of the planning commission, parks and recck commission, September 17, 2025. will come to order. Naika, please take role. Yes. Time 3:31. Commissioner Johnson, Commissioner Delgado, present. Commissioner Cilla, Vice Chair Wakava,

present. Chair Wagner, present. Thank you.

Okay. I just uh like to make a minor announcement before we go to invocation. Um the cornerstone of this country, one of the cornerstones of this country was freedom of speech and it should still be last Wednesday that was violated when somebody felt assassinating somebody somebody's free speech. Now, as a city, we have a place right there podium to come up and I've heard everything by everybody for every reason, good, bad, ugly. And we we we listen to it because it's freedom of speech. And with that being violated, it really leaves an emptiness in my heart with knowing who the individual was and what he represented. So after a quick invocation, if we can have a moment of silence before we go to the flag salute, I would really appreciate that. So can we stand for invocation, please? Lord, we just come to you tonight with thanksgiving in our heart and we just thank you, Lord, for yet another day that you have made. We ask for your direction as individuals and as a city, but most importantly as an individual. Whether we're a son, daughter, father, mother, children, we just ask a special blessing for wisdom for all in Jesus precious name we pray.

Amen. Amen. And just a moment of silence for Charlie Kurt, please. Thank you. And uh Terry, would you lead us in the flag salute, please? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, moving right along. Any deletions or additions to the agenda? Na, we have none. Okay, presentations. No presentations.

Okay. public communications. This is where we open uh within the jur uh open time for the members of the public to comment on any matter within the jurisdiction of the planning commission. Members of the public wishing to address the planning commission. U if you're on the phone, hit star 9 and in order the secretary will tell you to hit star six which will unmute you. You have three minutes to speak and uh but we will go with the card we have in front of us first and you know who you are.

Ah okay. Can you hear me? Yes.

All right. Well, good afternoon. Um I'm Rhonda Dennis. Uh I don't really have anything to say other than I just wanted to introduce to you guys. Uhelves myself to you guys. Um you will probably see me around. I am a resident of Atlanta. Been a resident for the last six years. Um I'm also um trying to open up a charter school here in Atlanta. I am a retired 28-year um educator and um not really retired. I just stepped away from the district so that I can do my own thing. So um I'm I'm here I'm 100% team Atlanta and I'm here to support this city and all of the things that um our council and our mayor and you guys are trying to do. So I just wanted you to know who I am. What uh what on your charter school, what grades are you shooting for?

So, it's um the charter school will be TK through 8th grade. Okay.

The and we will also have a preschool. So, we're um we're looking um if we can get the zoning permits and everything. Um uh we're looking to start the preschool um at a building on Jonathan Street. Um and then behind that building is about an acre where next so the preschool we're we're hoping to start this year. The um charter school we're still in the process of putting the petition together and we have to submit it to the uh Atlanta school district. So we're hoping to open in fall of 26. And um behind the preschool on that one acre is where we plan to put uh classroom portables.

Great. So um and then the the focus or the theme for our our school is financial literacy and entrepreneurship. So something that our community needs. Um and we'll also have like community um meetings with the parents to help them to be able you know to learn how to manage finances. I'm trying to partner with um an organization called Operation Hope. I don't know if you guys are familiar with it, but they're in they're in LA. They're all over the country, but they help um people to become homeowners.

Um so, I'm trying to partner with them to have them come out to Atlanta um and have a a chapter out here as well. So, so that's what I'm I'm trying to do to help do my little part to build up this city. Great, girl. All right. Thank you so much. No calls. Pardon? No calls. Okay. No calls on the Okay. And we'll we open that up at what? 336. 34. Okay. Close it at 3:38. Boy, she took a long time.

N that's great. That's that's great direction. Great everything. And if you're here afterwards, I'll talk to you privately, too. Anything? uh for consent calendar. No, none. Okay. Going to G one, tenative trackm.

Yes. Item G is a tenative trackm 20770. Um I will be presenting the presentation on Chris Espinosa's behalf. Planner Chris Espinosa. Um the tenative track map um uh TTM20770 is north of Victor Road east of Verbina Road and the applicant is Jessica Hton from Synergy Consulting. Do you have the slide up? Oh yes, I'll be presenting. She also juggles and does sideh shows too.

I'm sorry. 20770 TTM. All right, next slide. Tenative trackmap uh 20770 is a single family residential subdivision. A proposal to subdivide a 9.11 acre site into 28 single family residential lots. is located north northeast of Victor Street and Verbina Road in the R1 single family residential zone district in the city of Atlanta County of San Bernardino. The assessor parcel number 3132-181 04. At this time there's no development to be proposed. Next slide. In front of you, you have the project location which is the uh zoning/general plan um location map. It is a north is uh single family residential zone is vacant and south of the property is single family which is also vacant. East is R1 single family residential which has a few residents and west is R1 single family it's also vacant site. Next slide. TTM20770. This is the proposed subdivision map. Um it's it consists of it's an on a 9.11 acre site. They're going to subdivide it into 28 single family lots and it has they're going to have an access from Luciano Lane and Victor Street with twoletter lots. Next slide, please. The environmental considerations is categorically exempt by section 5183 of the California Environmental Quality Act as the project is zone for the appropriate use in this zone. Next slide.

The housing crying act declared in 2009 by governor. Um it is it meets the state housing crisis uh Senate Bill 330. This bill became effective January 1st uh 2020 and establishes a statewide housing emergency to be in effect until January 1st, 2025 and extended through 2030 through SB8. The several leg legislative measures are in place that aimed at um limiting local government government ordinances and policies that can be applied to housing development and which requires local governments to facilitate and develop of housing. The Senate has a state mandate regional housing needs assessment, RHNA, as of 3,763 for the current sixth cycle plus 2,841 deficients from fifth cycle based on the housing crisis act that was declared in 2019 by the governor. Next slide. Staff recommendations to adopt resolution 25-16 adopting an initial study and categorically exemption and approve tenative trackm 20770 based on the findings and the subject to continuous to conditions of approval. And that concludes my presentation. Uh Chris Espinosa is also on the line. I believe Jessica Hotton is on the line if you have any further questions. Thank you. Yeah, just uh when do you hope to get started on this, Jessica?

My apologies. I don't believe Jessica's on the line. Okay. Well, we'll let we'll let Christian No, we'll let Christian uh he's sick, so uh he could just do sign language. So, okay. Well, uh I have no further questions if any of you all have something. No sir. No sir. Mr. Johnson is going through the fine tuning. Oh, you don't have Okay. I didn't know if you had something. Okay. Well, with that, we'll just go ahead and uh get right done with this, I believe. Uh we'll open public comment at 3:43. No problem.

And uh we will close that at Okay. Carry on, sir. So this this the what's being presented right now is based off of our current general plan though, right? It has nothing to do with the the next item. That is correct. Okay.

Okay. With no further questions, I'll just uh I'll just go ahead and make a motion that uh resolution P25-16, a resolution of the planning commission of the city of Atlanta, San Bernardino County, California, adopting the categoral categor categorical there we go, exemption and making the findings and approving tenative trap map 20770 to subdivide a 9.11 acre lot into 28 single family residential lots on a site located north of Victor Street east of Verbina Road within a single family residential R1 zoning district in the city of Atlanta count uh county of San Bernardino assess part partial number 3132-181-04 do I have a second

I second all in favor any opposed passes 4 okay item number two.

Item number two, general plan amendment uh 258 and zone text amendment 251. Ordinance number 658 will be presented by myself and um Mr. Lewis Morales. Uh he was the one that assisted me with this project. Uh the applicant is the city of Atlanta and is is a proposal for northeast mixeduse overlay zone. Next slide. General plan amendments 20 25001 and zone text amendment 251 is a general plan amendment uh proposal to amend the Atlanta north 2035 comprehensive substantial sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s sub s substainable plan plan the Atlanta journal plan land use and zoning map to incorporate the northeast mixeduse overlay zone. The purpose of this amendment is to increase residential and commercial density, expand opportunities for housing and mixeduse development, and encourage economic growth and land use flexibility in the northeast area of Atlanta. The amendment includes a general plan amendment to add the proposed overlay zone on the land use and zoning map and zone text amendment to revise appendix A of the zoning code incorporating standards and guidelines specific to the northeast mixed use overlay zone. Next slide please. The general plan amendment uh land use of element is one of the mandatory general plan elements. The elements may be amended four times per year. Each amendment may contain many changes. The city has received many general plan inquiries for development purposes and has processed in a bundling approach. The purpose of this amendment is to increase residential and commercial density, expand opportunities for housing and mixeduse development, and allow for single family residential

units up to 1,100 square foot on minimum lot size of 3,600 square feet. and permit HUD approved pre-fabricated and modular housing in the overlay zone. The land use and zoning zoning map will remain the same and the land use zones that will be affected as business park. Next slide. The history of the general plan and zone use. Um 1973 is the city's first was the city's first general plan. Uh the major amendments occurred in 1994. In 2014, the last journal plan amendment update is um on our current land use map and the last GPA for the land use and zoning map was October 2022. Next slide, please. In front of you, you see the the original general plan and zoning map as of 2014. This was the early general plan which um had a large manufacturer industrial area within the business park zone. There was no mixeduse and there was no business park back in 2014 and the mix of housing density in the north of Atlanta. Next slide. Based on the 2023 24 through 52 25 uh GPA zoning map, the current map uh throughout the years there was uh there has been a few GPA mixed use has increased. Airport Park has increased and as I stated, October 2022 was the last general plan update and res and the reestablish establishment of mix manufacturing industrial zone is east of Highway 395. Next slide. In front of you, you see the business park area that will be affected by this

amendment. Once again, it would increase the residential and commercial density. It would expand the opportunities for housing and mixeduse development. Also would encourage the economic growth and land use flexibility in the northeast area of Atlanta. It would allow single family residential and also permit HUD approved pre-fabricated and modular housing in that overlay. As you see on the on your screen, the outline of the mixeduse overlay is outlined in red, which is in the northeast area of the city of Atlanta. Next slide. The subject. Environmental considerations subject to SQA California Environmental Quality Act. An addendum to the ER's SH2042031 034 for Atlanta 2035 comprehensive sustainable plan was prepared for the project in accordance with the city's guidelines which determined from the whole record that the project as revised will not have a significant effect on the environment. The city did not receive any comments from responsible and affected agencies. Next slide. Staff recommendations to adopt resolution P-25-17 recommending the city council adopt the addendum to the previously adopted 2014 environmental impact report EIR with the SC number 201 which is state clearing house number 20142031034 and adopt ordinance number 658 approving the general plan amendment number GPA2-01 and zone text amendment number zone uh SC2501 the northeast mix overlay based on the findings and that concludes my presentations. Thank you.

Okay, before we open that up to uh the public, I'm going to break some things down and correct me if I'm wrong. Nikka basically there was a a uh situation where they zoned that we'll just call it more towards business and a person that owned a home over there if he wanted to go get a loan on the home he went into the bank they said oh no you're in a business district so now it gives it back to the property owner so if they need to improve their home they can go get a loan if they want to build a home they can go get a loan so it was something that was apparently overlooked looked when they were zoning it years ago and now I think we're just correcting it with the overlay.

That is correct. Yeah. So, us as average homeowners, it would definitely be a positive because that podium was full of people that were not real satisfied. I think Ricky might remember. So, so I think it's a step in the right direction. I'm glad you guys caught it and was able to come up with an overlay for that. And uh so that should be encouraging. And with that, I'll open up to public comment at 3:52.

Great. Going once, my audience, she's she's going to sit tight for a minute. So, no, my uh uh Okay, that's great. Uh no callers, no nobody. So, we'll close that at 3:52 p.m. Bring it back. Uh any any discussion or any questions on our behalfs? I do have a question. Um I think this was also during the time that I was here when we were dealing with a lot of the flooding too and the homeowners weren't able to go get the relief that they needed. So considering that we passed this now, um is anything going to be retroactive for them or is this from the time that the council approves it moving forward?

Yes, moving forward. Yeah, just moving forward. Okay, that was a good point. I forgot about the flooding one. Yeah, good man. Good man. Anything else? I have nothing.

Okay. Going once, going twice. Okay. So, I'll I'll go ahead and uh resolution planning commission of the city of Atlanta, County, San Bernardino, California. adopting the uh alum to the previously adopted 2014 environmental impact report uh schedule number 2014203 1034 and uh recommending that the city council adopt an ordinance uh number 658 approving general plan uh amendment number GPA2 25-01 and uh zone text amendments number ZTA 25-01. Making that motion. Do I have a second?

Second. Okay. Uh uh. All in favor? I I I'm sorry. Who second? They're gonna They're gonna fight over it again. It's a good thing. Yeah. Passes 40. Okay. Any uh anything on parks and reca? Any announcements? I have no announcements. Okay. New business. No new business at this moment. Okay. Thank you. Any comments? I have no comments. Okay. To the planning gentlemen.

I have nothing. Uh, I have something. Um, I'd like to propose two items for a future agenda for discussion. Um, to review and clarify our current um, ADU ordinance and find even more strategic forwardinking ways to expand that so that we can really hit that reena uh, number and kind of more empower um, the residents so that we're not really dependent upon developers to come in and do it. So, just finding even more strategic ways without all of the regulations. And then, um, for number two,

would that you're you're hoping that a current resident is allowed to put a a ADU like maybe on his present property and back and stuff.

Yeah. And just just kind of clarifying what the rules are currently because I know we've adopted California's rules, but just even like I just saw up there today with the overlay um which I thought was really ironic um like the whole idea of prefabs and so extending that into our ADU ordinance as well if that's something that we're able to do. And then I also want to um uh for discussion to um a proposal to maybe require new housing developers to um take traffic calming measures in the housing development which I'll be transparent in my case we were asking for the speed bumps a couple years back. Um, so instead of having to retrofit, just to kind of um, incorporate that into the development so that those things are already in place so that we're not having to do it after the fact.

So whether it's a stop sign, speed bump, some sort of traffic, you know, alert system, um, and just have it kind of built into the housing tracks already. Now, do would you like that to go uh after park areas and school areas type of thing or or because I know average, you know, average and I'm just discussing that's why uh you know, average uh um residential, you know, I'd love to see it where I live now, but they didn't do it. So, in the future when you have a park and you have kids and stuff like that. So, are you targeting more towards that or you think where a traffic study should be done and just get them in even retro get them in? What's your thoughts?

So, I if I say retro, I'm probably going to get in trouble because No, you're not because I'm telling you I'll forward you my email if you can get it because this has been a concern of the cities and I've gotten those emails. Haven't you na? Where we have Yeah. So, uh we need to make sure he gets those emails because

So, yeah, if we can do retro retro, I think that's even better. But I know that there's going to be a significant cost associated with that. Um, so if we can move forward and be proactive as those developers are coming in, we just automatically incorporate that into the development the development plan. And it doesn't it's it's not intended to be punitive. It's more or less in the sense of we want families and safety and public safety. And so it may not even be required for every development. Maybe we can discuss that it would only be after so many feet of straight of a straight shot of some sort. Well, it's like the housing we approved tonight. There would be no purpose unless that ended up being a raceway going through their main road, you know, something like that. So, so yeah, it would be on an individual case. Uh so could the planning when we have these before if it's somebody else didn't catch it, maybe recommend it or make you know ask the like the planning to take a second look at that. We'll just say

or we could just kind of create a standard like I said. So it won't necessarily be on an individual basis. It would be based on so if if you have a street and that street is let's say 400 feet long well if there's another street that's only 50 feet long we might not need to put one on correct 50 but if it's if it at least hit at least hits the target of at least you know this many amount of feet okay yeah that's a street that we would need to put some sort of mitigating factor correct because that's what I'm dealing with on Christopher Highway as we call it this complex that we just pushed forwardflower and verina That's a It's a stretch. That's a stretch. So if they were to put one in the middle, it'll slow them down

on Victor. You're saying if once Victor opens up Yeah. into into a wider street because there's one really have to be in the community itself. Okay. Could be outside. And and and uh um Mr. Johnson, we did get uh or I did get uh I've gotten some email on that basically and and I've laid low on it, you know, but let me look that up or have Na Kurs up and send it to you if you didn't get it because they're doing just that right now, right? Is there they keep a constant, hey, do you have any suggestions type of thing and so they do have a situation that is is top on the city's mind.

Thank you. So those are my two items for future agenda for discussion please. Okay. Anyone else

going once twice? I'm just going to mention the mailboxes which I'm sure we're all aware of because I have to go by the post office before 5:00. actually before 455 when the doors get locked because uh apparently we've had a lot of vandalism and ours was posted that they were vandalized but nothing uh had been vandalized but in the other ones that have been vandalized there's a possibility they could have made a master key off the the keys the locks that were stolen. So, I do understand the security situation and it is a little inconvenient for everybody to go by the post office, but you know, go by there. There's a good bunch of guys working there and gals and so just say hi and thank you and it makes their day. I I guarantee you know. So, until we get this vandalization uh you know everybody your eyes and ears and I know it's hard but uh even put up one of those little uh fake security lights on up by your garage door if you got a mailbox out there. you know, we got the little $2.99 and they fooled me at work because I knocked it down because I thought I was being spied on. So, so anyway, yeah, so bear with the the the post department right now, postal department. And uh that's all I have to mention. And with that, I'll look for a motion to close.

Motion that we adjourn. I'll second it. All in favor? Bye.