Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Are we ready to begin? We are ready be to begin. I call this regular planning commission meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. Please stand to for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Oh, thank you. Nicole, roll call, please. Yes. Youth Commissioner Ramandep Joanda, present. Commissioner Marilyn Abalon, present. Commissioner Eric Alman, present. Commissioner Shelby Goss, present. Vice Chair Charles Plamer, present. Chair Devet Muhammad, present. We have no presentations tonight, so I'm going to go ahead and open it up to public comment. This time is reserved for members of the public to address the planning commission on items that are not on the agenda and are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the commission. Comments are limited to three minutes. Comments for items on the agenda will be taken when the item is called in open session. The planning commission is prohibited by law from taking any action on matters discussed that are not on the agenda and no adverse conclusion should be drawn if the planning commission does not respond to public comment at this time. Do we have any public comment? Is there anyone in the room that would like to make a comment on anything not on the agenda? Okay, it appears we have no public comment. There is also no one on Zoom. Thank you. I will go ahead and close public comment. Director Cooper, do we have any agenda changes? Uh, thank you, Chair Muhammad. There are no agenda

changes tonight. Thank you, Director Cooper. Let's move on to consent calendar. May I have a motion? I'll make a motion that we adopt the consent calendar um for the last meeting of April 24. Nicole Ro. Oh, may I have a second? I'll second the motion. Thank you. Nicole, roll call, please. Commissioner Marilyn Avalon, I. Commissioner Eric Alman, I. Commissioner Shelby Goss, I. Vice Chair Charles Plamer, I. Chair Devet Muhammad, I. Thank you. Let's see. Public hearings. We'll start with the Napa Airport Corporate Center Development Agreement Extension. All right. Thank you, Chair Muhammad, members of the planning commission and members of the public. Brent Cooper, community development director, and I have a brief presentation for you on the Napa airport commerce center development agreement extension. Um, here is a uh site plan. It shows uh the location of the project. It's um near Highway 29. There's a portion that it fronts it and uh South Kelly Road. and today it's it's it's vacant, hence the need for a development agreement. Um there are a number of approvals that uh happened on the property in around 2018 um that was extended by a development agreement um which lasts five years and will expire in September. Um and so there is a a rather involved entitlement process for this site. Um they had an environmental impact report uh a subdivision map and there were individual um approvals for each of the planned industrial

buildings. Um here's a site plan. It's been updated slightly since that time. Uh although we don't have a compre we don't have a composite plan today to show you, but it's it's pretty much very similar to this. uh consists of about five buildings uh arranged uh around the center part has uh wetlands and the southern portion has wetlands as well which is one of the reasons why the project has been slow to move forward. There's been a lot of u permitting with um resource agencies. Uh it's taken some time. So, a very brief history. In 2020, um, approvals last only a few years. And so, in 2020, the entitlements that I just listed there were extended through a development agreement, uh, for five years. And essentially in return for that extension, um the developer would provide uh a quick rightway uh for widening and improving South Kelly Road near Highway 29 and then dedicating the property. Um a variety of of uh circumstances uh wasn't didn't allow that to happen. Um and so we're towards the end of the 5-year period uh without yet receiving the benefits. but that isn't anything um other than circumstances beyond everybody's control. Um and so uh this spring, just a few months ago on March, uh the developer requested a a 10-year extension to the development agreement and for the same uh benefits that were there uh in the five years. So essentially just extending the terms of the original agreement, but instead of five years, 10 years. Um and so staff is recommending a five-year extension. We have a variety of of recommendations to modify the plan uh proposed development agreement but the I think the most significant one is is instead of 10

years five years and the reason for that is it's the same benefit as before um it wasn't received the benefits because of reasons beyond all our control. So it just seems fair to just extend it another five years. Um and whether we do or not would be a recommendation from the planning commission to the city council who will make the final decision. Um I mentioned that there were a variety of um changes to to the project. Um and and so they're a little technical. Apologize for that. Um, and normally we would negotiate these things with the applicant, but we're a little short of time. Um, so we're moving it forward to maintain the schedule so that the hearings can happen uh enable it to a decision to be made prior to the 5-year uh development agreement expiring in September. So, here we go. Uh, it's not too bad. Um and so um there are discussions about uh a requirement for the applicant to pay its fair share towards infrastructure. And uh there have been uh fluctuations in the buildout of different projects in the vicinity. And so that's given rise to uh a more detailed discussion about how much is warranted by each developer. And so, um, what this recommendation says is that the developer, uh, agrees to negotiate in in good faith, um, on modifying their fair share towards infrastructure in the area. Um, a second change that I'd mentioned, uh, uh, the term of the

development agreement, five years instead of 10. Um and then another change would be uh to this is kind of a little bit technical. One of the benefits of a development agreement is that it sort of puts in place the rules that are in the municipal code and and fees sometimes um in effect of the time the original approval the development agreement was approved. So five years have gone by and there have been some changes to some of the rules. Um, we didn't do an exhaustive search, but it's logical to think that there's probably something that's been changed since then. And since we're refreshing the development agreement for a new term, it just seemed the right thing to do to refresh the date upon which the rules are fixed in place. Um, another issue has to do with the uh fair share of what they do need to pay for infrastructure. Um, the city is obligated to uh pay the fair share for this project. I understand um on a certain time certain um and that may preede the expiration of the development agreement. And so our recommendation would be that the applicant pay their fair share whether or not they build during the term of the development agreement. Um if they do build then it's it's as as was um mentioned in the first development agreement, it's prior to each building permit. But on the hopefully unlikely scenario where they don't build during the term, then those fair share obligations would be paid. Um on the fifth one um almost there. Uh this last this other one would be adding

agreement um that the um applicant amendable to um providing the dedication for uh South Kelly Road uh before the end of this calendar year. Now the they are waiting the applicant is waiting for the city. Thank you Erica. To provide the applicant with some information that enables them to provide that dedication and I have been told on good information city manager that that task can be accomplished in not too long from now. So it's it's reasonable to assume that there could be a dedication before the end of the calendar year. And that's really an important milestone. I don't know if anyone's driven on South Kelly lately, but it's reverting to nature. So, it would be nice to see some improvement out there. And then the final one is kind of good news. Um that uh just wanted to reinforce that extending the development agreement really is consistent with the city council's strategic plan on a variety of levels. uh among them it's uh attracting and expanding diverse business and employment. Um this is important because if the development agreement wasn't extended then all those complicated entitlements would expire and both the developer and the city spent years working on them. It's a lot of effort and um the development is consistent with the general plan. So, it's a good thing to to find a way to work together to agree on extending it. Um, alleviating traffic congestion. So, that gets into dedication and improvement of South Kelly Road. Uh, I think important for anyone who uses it. And then also implement regulations that

demonstrate leadership and environmental sustainability. Um the city is a leader in its regulation of warehouses um in sustainability and so this project would comply with that um which which helps with environmental sustainability. So there's there are there are reasons not just to benefit the developer but there are reasons to further objectives that the city council has said are important um to come to agreement on extending the life of the project. So with that, I guess I'm done. I thought I had another slide. Um, so our recommendation is to uh uh recommend approval of the development extension with these six minor changes. Um, and uh we have them documented here. So, I am I think we'll be able to perhaps reference the staff presentation, assuming a planning commission agrees, um you could reference the staff recommendation because it's all written here and presented in public um should you decide to accept them. And with that, I'm glad to answer any questions you have. Commissioner Goss. Hi. Uh thank you uh Mr. Cooper for that presentation. Um so my understanding then is that and the need for this 5-year extension is that no development has happened on site yet. Right. Correct. Okay. And part of that is that they are still in the permitting process or getting approval from the resource agencies like the regional water board and the army corps of engineers because there are

wetlands on site. Um there are wetlands on site but I don't know the status um of the developers acquisition of of um their resource agency permits. I think there are some other economic reasons why the project hasn't moved forward and I know that the developer is here and would be happy to kind of expand on on u reasons. Sure. I I would love to ask the developer some questions directly but maybe if there are others when he can come up next. Commissioner Plamer. Thank you. Uh thank you for the presentation. Um you had mentioned um road improvements or road adjacency improvements. Um what what exactly is being asked of the developer in that regards? Um I'd like to turn it over to our public works director. Um the improvements for the project on South Kelly Road um is I can tell you a high level answer, but the person that really knows is our uh Erica Aman Smith. He's our public works director. Good evening, chair, commissioners, city of American Canyon, Erica Almond Smithy's, public works director. As far as the improvements, which I happy to share are under design right now by BKF engineers and the city purview. The um improvements include the right turn lane, designated right turn lane, dedicated left turn lane, and through lane. Um and then the land dedication to the right. I believe it includes the class one trail going to the south side of it if I'm remembering correctly. Um and also recycle pipeline going the road which we want to get that in while we're reconstructing the entire South Kelly. Um the county is even partnering with this because they want for some reason when we annexed in that parcel they did the the annexation from the center line

south is city and the center line north is the county. So um the county's participating and we're including Tower Road in that whole reconstruction design. So that whole segment of tower to Develin to South Kelly will be all renewed. So um I'm happy to answer any questions. Um we're probably looking at least an year out for that design to be completed because we also need encroachment permits. It includes the intersection improvements um that were approved as a reduced um project. There was a full project blown out with with additional lanes on 29. But with the reduced trips with the final Napa Logistics project, it's now just lengthening the two left turn lanes um the left turn lane going northbound and the right actually having a right turn lane onto South Kelly Road. So it's not just South Kelly, it's also the intersection that's getting improvements. So we're anticipating a little longer than a year because of the uh Cal Trans coordination. So thank you for that. I and I'm assuming with the um recommended extension for the 5-year that some of these improvements like you said falls within that 1 to two year range would be hopefully complete by the time the extensions completed as well too. Correct. The goal I would be the goal, right? Yeah. Thank you. County wants it done yesterday, but we're we're where we're at. Commissioner Alman, thank you. Um, Director Cooper, you had mentioned something about uh subdivision agreement being in place as part of the package of uh, you know, predecessor um, obligations that that have been met at this point. What when does the subdivision agreement expire? Um, I I didn't mention a subdivision agreement. I did mention that there was a subdivision. So, the the site itself was was divided into parcels through through

a subdivision map. Um, I don't know if there is a subdivision agreement. Oh, okay. I So, I misinterpreted. I thought I thought it said subdivision agreement. Um, so my bad. You're all in agreement that it should be subdivided. Ah, there you go. I like that. Good play on words. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so yeah, that that was the the thing that kind of jumped out to me. Uh, and then I'd love to hear from the developer and and um, honestly see if they have any objection to the 5-year rather than 10 year. Okay. So, with that, I'll go ahead and open up the item for comments from the applicant. Good evening. Thank you for uh, meeting with with us tonight. My name is Steve Lei with G3, the developer property development manager. Um, for those of you not aware of G3 and what we do, uh, we have a number of divisions and we essentially support the wine and beverage industry through different divisions such as logistics, a hauling, grapes from the vineyard to the crush facility, pistachios, almonds, all sorts of a manufacturing, uh, including labels and, uh, closures, corks, twist off caps, that sort of thing. And also property development. So, we develop warehouses and place tenants in there. And we have a 3PL and a warehousing team. So, uh some of the nearby presence that you may be familiar with for G3 would be our 1000 Green Island, uh 260,000 foot warehouse around the corner. Uh we occupy that building and we've got Tap Label and Griggsby Label uh and uh Colac nearby as well. So branches of our label and um closure manufacturing teams. So yeah, thanks again for to staff for helping us get to this point. We've done some minor modifications in the last couple years that we purchased the project. So the

original developer had a different site plan in mind and we thought we'd ramp it up with a little bit more current uh modern architecture, make it more aesthetically pleasing. That was one modification that we made. Another one was to improve the circulation and make sure that trucks and overall separation between cars and trucks was managed as well. So it took some time to get to that point. So our permitting or our minor modifications were recently approved and now we're at the next step which is now that the development agreement is going to expire in September. Uh that's why we're here today to uh extend that so we can have more time to develop. And uh to be honest, the the market is just not as favorable as it was when we purchased the property. Couple years ago, we were looking at 2 to 3% vacancy rates. Now we're up to 14 to 15% vacancy rates and warehousing. So to build on spec at this point without a tenant lined up would only fuel the fire, so to speak, and add to the problem that's uh with the vacant warehousing in the in the industry. And so we just need a little more time to find that right tenant. We've had a couple bites and we're in discussions. Uh but again, we do need time and G3 originally did ask for 10 years and staff came back and we are in support of the five-year uh reduction. The only minor amendment that I would like to request was on number four that we brought up and that would be to not condition the fair share uh cost uh agreements sorry to yeah number four would be not to condition the project to pay for the fair share contributions until the first building permit is pulled. And that's how it was originally written in the uh original development agreement. Happy to answer any other questions about G3 or the project in general. It's deeprooted history in this project. Commissioners, do we have any questions for the developer?

Um, yeah. So, okay. So, what I was attempting to ask Director Cooper, um, so at this point, um, the site is fully permitted. Oh, yes. As as far as the wetlands and the regional, yes, we have the 401 and the 404, uh, certifications and permits in place, we do. Yeah. Okay. Um, what does the mitigation plan look like? Mitigation plan as far as as far as you're developing what 66 acres of wetlands. Yes. So, um, Golden State Conservancy has a plot of land just west of Boone Drive. Okay. And Napa Logistics Park, uh, constructed some mitigation area, some vernal pools and wetlands in, uh, mitigation for their project. And there's a spot just south of this same creek. It's so purchasing credits. No, not purchasing credit. We're going to we're going to actually create the vernal pools and the mitigation land right next to uh, Napa Logistics Park. Okay. They only uh constructed part of the improvements. We'll we'll continue continue doing the rest. Okay. So, is G3 responsible for submitting like the monitoring plans each year then? Yes. Uh the Golden State Conservancy is Golden State Conservancy. So, we have an endowment with them, an agreement with them. Um, I will be the first to admit that I am not a business person by trade. Um, but you mentioned that vacancy in warehouses has increased since you got involved with the project. Correct. Um, up to about 14% you said. Um, how optimistic are you about finding tenants in the next five years? That's a great question. Um, as I indicated earlier, we we have had a couple bites. So, we're working with them to make sure that we

can um suggest or deliver a project that will pencil out with the nearby vacancy rates. It's getting more competitive as far as what we can do to pencil it out. So, um, we're we're doing the best we can. I can't tell you how the I wish I had a crystal ball. I really do. Of course. Anyone else have questions? Any other commissioners? Not a not a question, just a comment. If you ever find that crystal ball, please share. I might hold that dear to myself. With that, I'd like to open it up to public comment. Chair Muhammad, I can um shed some light on the request for number four. Um I did speak with city manager Holly after me meeting with the applicant and um interested parties earlier this afternoon as director Cooper stated um because we are trying to stay on a timeline there's still discussions ongoing um and so that piece will likely evolve um per the applicant's request for number four. Thank you. Thank you. Public comment. Is there anyone in the room that would like to comment on this item? Okay. Can you please um once you're done with your comment, fill out a speaker card and bring it to me. Council members or commission members. Uh my name is Bill Harper. I have for the last 25 or so years been the manager of a business called Valley Wine Warehouse. We operate in 75 South Kelly Road. Um I very concerned that the applicant here is committed to doing whatever it takes to get that road

fixed, work with the city and the county. That's the that Green Island Road's bad. That road's even worse. and it's become a very heavy traffic corridor for the people bypassing to go south on 29. And so the congestion there is horrible and the condition of that road's horrible. You have trucks parking on the side of the road. So just want to to ask the applicant and the city staff I know is committed to get that done as soon as possible to get that road paved to standard and widened and more efficient for for traffic flow through that area. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harper. Is there anyone else in the room that would like to comment on this item? Okay. And we don't have anyone on Zoom. So, I will go ahead and close public comment. Commissioners, may I have a motion? I'll make a motion uh to accept the recommendation of staff to extend the Napa airport corporate center development agreement extension for 5 years um from September 3rd to 20 2025 till September 3rd 2030 located on the southeast corner of Delin Road and South Kelly Road. And did we want to include the other recommendations including the amendment for item number four based on are you are you trying to include all of the um provisions correct all the provisions invited included as well as two and then you're um is your recommend are you requesting that the section regarding um was item four be chair plumber u uh the six recommended amendments that was in the staff

presentation. Got it. Thank you. Let me let me state that one more time. Then I will make a motion to accept staff's recommendations for the extension of the Napa airport corporate center development agreement extension for 5 years from September 3rd, 2025 to September 3rd, 2030, including the six staff recommended amendments. uh for the southeast corner of Delin Road and South Kelly Road. May I have a second? I will second that. Thank you. Nicole, roll call, please. Commissioner Marilyn and Abalon I. Commissioner Eric Alman I. Commissioner Shelby Goss. I. Vice Chair Charles Plamer I. Chair Dvet Muhammad I. Moving on to Crawford Way multifamily project design permit. Right. Uh good evening, Chair Muhammad and members of the planning commission and members of the public. Uh William he with the planning division. Very happy to be here today to give a presentation on the Crawford Way multifamily project. Um this project was continued from our March meeting. So, um, I will start with a short recap of the project, but the brunt of my presentation is going to be trying to respond to the questions that came up in the March meeting. Um, so we'll go from there. I just want to remind everybody that this project is a housing project and is subject to the housing crisis act from uh the state and it says that the uh the housing project shall not conduct more than five public hearings and continuences does count as public hearings and this is the fifth public hearing. All right, that out of the way get some bearings for this project. This

uh project uh is on the southwest corner of the Crawford and Highway 29 intersection. It's about uh 4.3 acres, nice square size. To the north is the Canyon Plaza Shopping Center. To the west are residential uh uh houses. To the south is the uh Open Door Christian Church. And then to the to the east is Highway 29. Here's the site plan for the project. It is uh um appro consists of approximately 16 residential buildings and uh the main entry is on Crawford Way and they also have an emergency vehicle access to the east side of the project. Uh project overview. Um project consists of 100 multifamily units, 68 two-bedroom units, and 32 threebedroom units. uh 16 buildings in all, approximately four to eight building units per building. Includes a community building with children's playground. Uh project includes 216 car parking spaces and eight bicycle parking spaces. Um the applicant is invoking their rights to uh uh the density bonus and waiverss per state law and the architecture is about the modern industrial type. Lastly, it has a uh the project includes some improvements to uh Crawford and Highway 29. So this is a a example of their architecture um modern industrial with multiple types of u uh architectural features and materials. Um, interestingly, their their um their frontage uh the front units of the buildings will be facing Crawford and

Highway 29, which enables um pedest pedestrian access uh straight back onto Crawford. This is their landscaping plan. It in uh includes uh trees and shrubbery along the Highway 29 and uh Crawford All right. So, uh, since the March meeting, um, the project was continued to today. Uh, there's been several, uh, questions that came up from the March meeting, and I'm going to go over some of them, but, um, if I missed any of them, they're all in attachment 15. So, we we try to give as much in-depth information as we can. So the one of the questions to begin with was um there was a concern was the access or not enough uh vehicle access to the project and um the the the concern was that could we provide an additional access to the project overall. So staff looked at the uh the project and consulted with the fire division and basically the fire code requires two separate um uh uh fire apparatus roads when there's 200 or more units. And because this this project is 100 units, they don't need that second uh access. The project also has an emergency EVA off of Crawford and the homes uh can directly access Crawford and Broadway um in the event of an emergency. Um question two. So there was an uh a concern um about the um not a concern but a proposal to uh convert a

second entry by pushing the two buildings in the middle facing Crawford closer. Um and we looked at that proposal and unfortunately uh the the planning commission uh does not have the discretion to require an applicant to have to access roads if the project um already exceeds the fire code requirements. Um, a second part to that uh proposal is that uh according to public works, if there were two entryways on Crawford and the the addition of the midblock crossing that they're bringing in, that's going to be conflict conflicts going there. So that's why um the that proposal uh could not work. Um there was a concern about parking. Um, so the the the question asked if there was off- streetet parking and there will be uh off um off-site parking along Crawford Way. Uh parking is allowed on the street for 72 hours at a time and that's a a civo code. Um and the project uh for overall uh complies with the requirements of state law. So state law um has uh uh different um parking requirements to the municipal code. So the state law requires 150 parking spaces for the 100 units and the project is providing 216. Um so they exceed the requirements for u parking uh uh vehicle parking. Uh there was a concern about bicycle parking. The project is providing eight bicycle parking spaces and um the

question asked if the applicant could provide more. And so, um, uh, staff looked at that project and and, uh, saw that, um, uh, the California Building Code or CBC anticipates a more stringent bicycle requirement in next year since January 1st, 2026. So, um, so right now they comply with our code and the code says for 100, um, for 100 units and, u 200 parking spaces, they're required to provide eight. So, if the applicant does submit their construction permits prior to the next um uh building code cycle, then it's it's not going to be subject to the new one, but it's really anticipated that the new one will require more bike parking spaces. And so, it's they're running on a on a timeline. uh landscaping. The there was a um a question to to um change a uh to add native red bud trees instead of the um proposed Oklahoma red bud. Um unfortunately the zoning code does not require native landscaping uh for new development. But um you know it's because of this um uh kind of a nominal change. I I think the applicant can work with with the planning commission on that to to change um the trees from Oklahoma to California red buds. Ah this one the the sub area development transfer. This one's a little bit uh complex, but um there was a concern about the um number of units that this project would use for the um local

serving mixed used um zone sub area. So, um, this project, uh, originally, um, well, not this project, but the Broadway district specific plan was approved in, uh, I think 2019, and they, um, they anticipated 1,200 units and new, uh, residential units. From there, they distributed the units into a table, one for uh, the number of maximum units per area. Um but this that was 2019 so we we don't know how development would happen uh in 2025. So the the Broadway plan actually has some flexibility and it allows uh in section 7.4 allows the community development director to transfer units through a discretionary application which the design permit is a discretionary application. So, so there's the um uh Broadway plan and here is a table of how the maximum dwelling units were uh assigned back in 2019. So um as you can see local serving mixed use was assigned 86 units and and this project would use up more than 86 units but uh through a transfer um we can add 14 units to make it 100 units for the local survey mix use uh through a subtraction from the medium density residential uh uh sub area. So with that uh kind of like a quick math, the result would still be 1,200 units overall and it will still comply with the Broadway district plan. Um the good thing is that we have not received any project proposals for the medium density uh zone

yet. So it doesn't seem like it's the the loss of 14 units in that area. It's going to really uh be impactful in the long run. And this is not a one-time thing. if if there is a change that's necessary in in the future, it could be changed again later on. As long as um the result the total result is still 1,200 units, we're we're in good standing. Um jumping ahead, there was a concern that this project would use up all of the local serving mixed use uh zone. And I know when you're looking at that big uh at the Broadway district plan, it's kind of hard to to see all the little zones and all the colors. So, this is a zoomed in view of what the local serving mixeduse um sub area is. So, there's um the Crawford site is shown with a little green uh arrow there. And so, it's one of three areas. So, it's not the the entire zone. So, it's it's um it's the area south of Crawford, the area south of Donaldson, and the triangular area east of um Broadway. So, it's it's using one of the three pieces, but not all of it. So, there's still other LSMU zones. And uh lastly, there was a concern about um this project um is a standalone uh uh residential pro project whereas LSMU says it's mixed use. So um it's a very good concern. It's a good question. I think the the LSMU zone um kind of is uh the the reason that they're it's called the LSMU

zone is intent is to strengthen local serving um retail centers and um and be complimentary to retail uses and higher um use residential developments. um the development there is permitted to be standalone residential or mixed use. So um uh and uh another thing that can that is important to remember is that mixeduse buildings are not just uh limited to the LSMU zone. So, you can have a mixeduse building outside of the LSMU zone. And if uh the the code says that uh uh the Broadway residential zone, the business park zone, and the downtown core zone still permits LSMU and also our two legacy uh uh zones, the community commercial and neighborhood commercial also allows for mixed use. So, that's just uh some clarification there. Actually, our one of our recent de developments, the uh Sunsquare mixeduse project is a mixeduse project and it's in the community commercial zone. So, so hopefully that clarifies some of the concerns of the project and and um that's most of it. Um public outreach since the March meeting. We've done our usual staff report blast um a week before the plan commission that happened in the March meeting, the April meeting, and also in the the May meeting. We actually have not received new uh public comments since March, so there was nothing to address there. Um and that staff's recommendation is to approve the Crawford Way multi-family design permit. And the project complies with SQA because um the applicant

provided an addendum to the Broadway district specific plan and the addendum showed that even with the project there were no substantial changes proposed by the project. So that's all that I have. Um I can take some questions. The applicant is here as well and they also have a present uh presentation if you guys Thank you for your recap, Miss Senior Planner. he and for answering those questions. Yeah. And clarifying before we um move on to plan commissioner questions. Is it okay if we hear from the applicant? Sure. Okay. I'm going to go ahead and open up the item for comments from the applicant. So, there you go. Arrows are arrow. Oh, nope. Why is the Let's just see. Why is this still on? I'll just close mine. There we go. Okay, there you go. Good evening, commissioners. Uh my name is Jeff Pototts uh with SDG Architects. I'm here on behalf of the applicant, uh, Billy Ye. Uh, the rest of the team is here to answer questions, civil landscape, uh, myself. Uh, I want to thank staff for all of their hard work on this project. It's it's definitely been a long uh, process. Um, we submitted the pre-application for this in uh, uh, believably uh, April of 22. Um, there's been several uh, iterations of things since then. We did have a neighborhood meeting back almost two

years ago in August of 23. Um, and here we are today. Um, it's a little bit unusual presenting to you guys when you've already seen the project without us. Um, there was a lot of moving parts going on with uh, you know, uh, different conditions of approval and things with the city and the applicant. And so um that kind of led to the the extensions and the uh continuations of the project. Um this project does comply with the specific plan. Um and it provides uh much needed housing to the city uh in an area that has lots of amenities that are walkable from the project. um it provides housing to strengthen those existing retail areas without adding, you know, more retail areas to that direct location where there's already a lot of retail um there. So, with that, we'll kind of walk through it quickly. And I know uh Mr. He has done a great job of presenting this to you on more than one occasion, so I'll try not to be too redundant with uh everything he said, but kind of walk through it quickly. Uh, as noted, it's a 100 unitit town home style project, so not an apartment style project. Um, the town home units are three stories and have their own uh garages. So, there are two 216 parking spaces on site. 200 of those are within standardly configured garages. So, every unit has a two-car garage that will be uh, you know, forced basically to be left open for parking by management and the HOA and the CCNRs. Um, and those are all configured as sidebyside parking, not tandem parking where people tend to not want to park their car. They want to leave it out. Um, so those spaces will be required to be left open and and typically uh the residents, you know,

from a bike parking standpoint are park parking their bicycles in a secured garage area either on hooks or in garage space or even, you know, some there's some space on the lower level where they could be uh parked inside. So the eight parking bike parking spaces are really visitors that are coming. They're going to lock their bike for a couple of hours. They're going to take it away. we don't expect the residents to be parking their bicycles outside overnight even even if they're chained up in a you know in a bike rack. Um and so um and then there is a community building and several other amenities for the site. So again the project's configured um so that there's front doors facing the streets um you know just provides a nicer street scene for the city for the neighborhood. It allows direct direct access to those streets and it kind of you know buffers the project uh as a whole from the streets. So it's basically configured to uh face the streets with a single access off of Crawford Way. Um it allows us to be far enough from the intersection to uh you know have a safe access there and it uh you know is more than enough access for this amount of vehicles. if there was an emergency, they didn't really don't want people getting in their cars and trying to get away from the project anyway. And so they'd be walking. There's plenty of pedestrian access throughout the project through the poos and, you know, down the interior roads that lead both directly out to 29 and directly to to uh Crawford from a pedestrian standpoint. Um, and then the community building and the the largest of the open spaces is uh here kind of centered within the project to be protected from the outside but easily accessible to everybody who lives in the project. And then there's these three

larger uh po areas where the uh units do have front door uh front doors facing each other and facing out onto that community space. So they come up, you know, with a little bit smaller, more intimate kind of community spaces in those areas. Um the units um are, as I said, all threetory town home style units, twocar garages. You know, they we they've been purposely kept on a bit of the smaller side um so that they could be, you know, used for both a rental style project or a for sale uh project. And so they're, you know, units that are sized uh accordingly for that two and threebedroom units. The end units are all three-bedroom units. The center units are the two-bedroom units. Um the only difference really in the alt and the two unit is there is a requirement um building code requirement for an accessible powder room on the first floor of a three-story unit. Uh 10% of them. And so 10% of the overall units need to have this uh accessible powder room uh on the first floor. And so that reconfigures and and that goes on the opposite end of where we don't need the uh meters so that the trash can move to that meter location and that powder room is accessible off of that entry. Um so that's just kind of a quirky building code requirement I guess I would call it. architecturally um you know the buildings were designed um Mr. Ye has a a very strong aesthetic that he was looking to uh provide in this project. It's you know in my opinion a higherend aesthetic as well than you might get in most kind of apartment complexes or town homes. In addition, we look to the specific plan. Um, and there's some very

um very similar cues in the modern industrial imagery in the specific plan that we picked up on. And I have that page at the back of the uh presentation, you know, should anybody want to see it. Uh, but architecturally um, you know, every unit has a a lower porch. It has a balcony uh for some outdoor private outdoor space along with all of the common outdoor space. And again, all the garages are accessed from alleys which are somewhat hidden from view. And all of the front doors are facing out to the streets and towards each other uh within the project. Um, and you know, material-wise, um, we've got some, uh, you know, lap siding, stucco, uh, and, uh, you know, a nice window package, um, balconies with metal rails and metal awnings, and sort of this individualized, uh, feel to the units with the, uh, with the, uh, shape and massing of the buildings themselves. Um, again, just a blow up of the uh the nice community building here. A lot of outdoor amenities uh for the community space uh within the center of the project. Um and just a couple of views of the community building. Um and I and I do want to um mention that um you know based on the neighborhood meeting, which I know was quite a while ago, um Mr. is committed to working with the adjacent neighbors on some different ways to help screen uh the project from their properties. Um, you know, that's not something we really want to mediate uh in this meeting, but rather work directly with those neighbors and, you know, let them kind of come to an agreement of what that screening might

look like and and how it's going to work. Um and so that's something that uh we're committed to do as we move forward. Um and just, you know, as a side note, um you know, with the state law, um the city, um doesn't even really need to transfer the units from one site to another. I mean, the state law clearly says that the density can be increased without changing the zoning, without requiring a zoning change, without a general plan change. It's just based on state law. So, um, even even if there were to be other units that were were to come in, I I don't think the city's going to be in any sort of pinch to, uh, provide more housing, uh, for the region. And, uh, with that, I think we're all here to answer any, uh, questions you might have, uh, regarding architecture, engineering, landscape, or or, uh, questions for the applicant. Thank you, Mr. Pototts, for being here to represent this project. We really appreciate that. I would go ahead and open up the item for commissioner questions. Youth commissioner, uh, thank you for presenting. Um, going back to what you have mentioned, in case if something happens to the productions, um, they have many access to leave the site, but how will emergency vehicles like firet trucks access the site? Yeah, I mean again the the fire uh and uh medical and all of that has has vetted this project. Um it meets all of their standards. Um it's it's half of the size of their standard for uh access. Um they have direct access to a nice percentage of the units right out on the frontage as well. Um, and there'll be an EVA access and the access on CR Crawford. Uh, so that it more than

meets uh all of those standards. There could be 199 units on this parcel with with one access and it would meet all those standards. I do want to um just mentioned that the the EVA, it kind of was in and was out based on back in, you know, we've gone through several iterations of this. Um, the EVA would would likely be on Crawford, not on Broadway. I don't I don't think they're going to want to try to bring a fire truck off a 29, you know, directly in there or an ambulance. So, there's there's a there's like four other locations on Crawford where an EVA could be placed. Another one of my question is, will the homes be affordable or market rate? there is uh you know with the state density bonus law and the and the city's requirements there is a an affordable component that's affordable you know based on those criteria in addition because of the size of the units and the type of units there's there's a level of affordability that's kind of buil built in to those other units as well. So there's a percentage of these units that are affordable um to uh you know various uh income levels. Um you can see the the green units on the screen are affordable units. There are uh moderate affordable units and low affordable units in that mix. Um and those are you know affordable by state and city criteria. Again this project type is more affordable you know by design than other project types might be. Thank you, Commissioner Avalon. Mr. Pototts, thank you for your presentation. Um, one of the um the last things you had commented on how the

developer wants to work in conjunction with the homeowners regarding screening. Um, again, new to this process. Could you share a little bit how that dialogue or how you would um receive that feedback and collaborate because there are several houses nearby and as you know from the comments that's something that keeps popping up. How can we protect the privacy um of the homeowners in that area? How would we develop positive collaboration to reach some sort of consensus? Yeah, I mean I think that um again we had a neighborhood meeting. It was quite a long time ago and there was some brief discussion about that back at the meeting. There's been no discussion since then. Um I think the neighbors and uh Mr. Ye would just need to get together on that. There's really one direct neighbor. Um the other neighbors are, you know, down the uh the road a little bit further. So the screening and things are probably not their main concern. I'm guessing traffic and other things would be those neighbors main concern, but I think that's um you know best as a direct dialogue um in good faith between the applicant and the neighbor. I certainly suppose if that wasn't you know gaining any traction there'd be somebody calling the community development director and asking about it. Thank you, commissioners. I'd like to go ahead and open it up for public comment. Thank you. Okay, Demetria Thomas. Okay, sorry, Philip Thomas. Thank you, commissioners, public, the applicant, developer. Just a couple of quick questions. we are the direct neighbor next to the property and we'd

like to have that discussion and what you can do to keep our privacy intact there. Okay. Uh secondly, um when you talk about the parking on Crawford Way is going to be parking all up and down the street and you know that's a long time to park for three days all up and down the street and I'd hate to see someone come in our parking in our driveway and block our parking lot uh driveway for about 3 hour or 3 days. Okay. And then uh the other items I have or questions I have is uh what is the experience of the development team in building large apartment buildings? We're not we're not building a forplex here. We're building a 100 units and that's costly and that's very intense. So I like to know your experience in building that. And then um who's going to manage it as well? Are you going to manage it or will you have a company manage it and what what is their experience in managing it? And then lastly, um, are you going to build it and hold it or are you going to sell it once the entitlements are in place? And that was the only questions I had at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Thomas. Demetria Thomas. Hello everyone. Um, thank you for being here for this meeting. It would have been really, really nice if you had attended every meeting regarding this project. We feel like we've kind of been overwhelmed with everything. Um, and because we're on Crawford Way, the traffic that this is going to cause is going to be a big problem. And there is traffic already that happens on Crawford Way with people coming from

Highway 29. Um, most of us have learned to take the back roads uh to avoid the highway, the traffic that it causes. The project's going to bring in quite a bit of traffic. The privacy issue, we are the home that is closest to your project, but we're not the only ones that are affected by it. my next door neighbor, everyone encompassing the block from Crawford and James all the way to James Road. Um, our privacy is going to be deeply affected by this project. Uh, we're older. Uh, I'm disabled. I'm not looking forward to having a very loud neighbor neighbors. Um I would hope that all of you take into consideration how this not only affects us but the city of American Canyon. Um initially we were kind of open to hear about this project when the meetings took place uh years ago. we had attended to. But things have also changed in American since we last had American Canyon since we had the last meetings. Population has gone up in American Canyon. There are so many apartment complexes. It would be nice to see more homes for sale going in. Um I think it's a better outlook for American Canyon. Uh anyway, I'm a little overwhelmed right now, but I appreciate you all listening to me. I appreciate your efforts being here. It just would have been nice to have seen you in all the

previous meetings. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Thomas. Is there anyone else in the room that would like to speak? And we have Oh, I'm sorry, Beth. Yes. Good evening, Beth Marcus. Um, as every new project comes about, we you're always going to have somebody complain. I'm the biggest one that complained about my Sorry, Brent. I always bring up what I call the jail house on Melvin Road. At least you guys got some pretty good uh looking U items there, but I was under the the impression too that there were going to be some condominiums in there. um I thought in the very first um talk of discussion, but it doesn't look like that's going to um happen. But uh the other thing that I'm concerned about, of course, like everybody else, was the parking and everything because I think not only will it go on Crawford Way, but it will probably go across the street where all the businesses are at and it may affect them as well. So um it's just some thought but um thank you for all your presentation and is there anyone else that would like to speak and we don't have anyone on Zoom. I will go ahead and close public comment. Um, did the commissioners have anything to say or did um staff have anything that they wanted to say? Oh, Commissioner Goss. Hi. Yeah, thank you for the presentation, all that information. Um, I believe that there's been ongoing discussion as well about undergrounding undergrounding the power lines uh at the

side of the site. Is that still part of the proposal? Is the city requiring that? I haven't heard any updates in a couple months. So, I was just curious. Oh, thank you, uh, Commissioner, uh, Goss. the um overhead. There's uh three overhead utility poles between this project and the open door church to the south. Um initially we thought that that was on they were on this property and uh we've had more uh detailed information show that it's actually off the property line on the neighboring property. And based upon that, um, we had talked about requiring them to be undergrounded, but since they're not on the property, um, that condition's been removed. Okay. Thank you. Um, I also, uh, had a couple questions about the landscaping. Um, uh, Mr. Heath, thank you for the clarification. Um you mentioned that for example the species of red bud is considered a nominal change and something the direct the developer may be willing to work with. Is there a guarantee of that? Is that just a good faith agreement with um just curious what the potential changes for that would look like. Uh, Commissioner Goss, I I couldn't recall if there is a condition of approval to that effect, but if there isn't, the commission could um provide a condition of approval that the uh red bud trees that were shown on the landscape plan would be substituted with native California red bud trees. So, that would be a bookmark there to remember if the commission would like to make that a condition of approval. Commissioner Avalon,

my question is regarding not just the the the town home style um development that's going to be placed on Crawford. But my question is, are we as a city in conversation with the Napa Valley Unified School District regarding the number of schools we have? We have three elementary schools, one middle and one high school. Are we taking into account as we build and as we grow, families are going to come. Families may move to American Canyon. I mean I mean I know I'm biased. I love this town. So we're going to be drawing people to come to our our lovely city and moving into homes that we are building as well as the town homes and apartments. Are we having conversations with our school district that we will have space for future students to attend our schools is my question. Is there is there a dialogue and is it a productive dialogue and plans to accommodate future students? Uh Commissioner Abalon, I know um Mr. He usually um does a great job coordinating with the school district uh on a very regular basis with demographics and new projects coming. Perhaps William you can give a comment on that. Yeah. Um so typically the the school district doesn't look at each project as they come in like on the spot. What they look at is our annual reports of our population through our housing element report. So, we give them our report and they do their 5-year estimates from there. And this project was on their kind of like on their radar since 2022 when it's in the pre pre-application side. So, they know about the project and they're well aware of how to do their estimates in their fiveyear 10-year plans from there. And Commissioner Abalon, demographically, the school district has been losing

students over time. Um the Napa Valley Unified School District website has this information quite clearly displayed. And so a project like this actually helps the school district because um the school districts receive funding from student enrollment. And with declining student enrollment, they're having declining funding which has a cascading effect in a bad way for the school district. So whatever we can do to to help provide um funding for the school is a good thing from that perspective. uh keeps teachers and and funding to to run our school for everybody. So, it it is um a project that would help uh forstall that. I'm not sure if it can alone fix it, but but it is a demographic trend. People just aren't having children as as much as they used to. I I'm in agreement with you that it is a wonderful opportunity to have families come. Um, again, the declining enrollment data, um, I know it is reflective. I'm aware of the declining enrollment data. However, I I would encourage, um, our commissioners, um, Mr. Ye, you know, I I would encourage us to take a field trip to look at our own classrooms in American Kenya, particularly our elementary classrooms, to see um, the space available and any overcrowding conditions. um we have one middle school in the city of American Canyon and you you know they're they're taking in all three elementary schools into that one middle school and again we have one high school. So again just just raising the concern that as we build and as we grow are we accommodating our our families that are here and future families that want to come to American Canyon? Yes, I can actually report to you there was a recent um meeting with the school district and uh Mr. He wasn't in attendance but I was and we did

mention um this and other projects that are on the horizon and the superintendent Museetta Dr. mentioned that there are a certain number of students that are transferred into the system from outside of the city. And so if in the event that there was uh a constraint on capacity um students who were transferred into the city from who live outside um would no longer be able to stay in this district. They would give priority to students who are already living in the city. Thank you for that clarification. Thank you. Okay. So, I I hearing this talk about uh schools, which is um an area of great concern for me, especially the way, pardon my language here, but uh this community has been screwed over by the district um in the past. just hearing uh your comment uh director Cooper so there won't be an improvement in terms of money coming in because American Canyon students will replace the Valo Benicia whoever other students are here. So there is no financial benefit. We are already at a point where our schools are fairly well crowded if not in fact overcrowded. We had the school district cancel after lying to the community a second middle school a number of years ago. And then and this has always astonished me, but this community is so supportive of education and kids that the district took $25 million from us to spend elsewhere. That was promised. That 25 million is the difference between the

cost of the new middle school that was never built and the improvements they made to the existing middle school which did minimal amounts about dealing with capacity. And this community of ours approved a $25 million bond taxing only us so that we could now go and do some other local improvements. So, I'm still waiting for the 25 million that the district took from us to come down here and be spent here by them. So, I'm in complete agreement with concern over the schools. Um, and there need to be conversations and they need to be serious conversations and the superintendent needs to get real and understand how to look at figures because they cancelled because over a three-year period there was going to be a decline. But if you extended that time window out, there was going to be an increase. and they ignored the upcoming increase which we're now with Watson Ranch and various other developments which would include this um project at issue at the moment seeing an increase and and a rise in the number of students in American Canyon. So, I this doesn't directly relate to the the project in question, and I apologize to, you know, everybody, but it it's a it's a real sore spot with me. And um if anybody from uh NVUSD is listening or paying attention, I think that they they owe this community a heck of a lot, including explanations, including spending time here and taking care of students in American Canyon because the reductions are happening further north, not here. we

have continually been the uh what what has built up and got them some additional funding for the past number of years. So I you know that that that's enough on that. That's just commentary. Nothing no questions but um just a real sore spot. Now I do have a variety of questions however for um the developer and for for uh staff as well. So, I'll start with um Mr. He, I found it a little interesting and and I think I know the answer and and and so you're probably not going to give me anything I'm not expecting, but you showed that nice table of um all of the different uh I'm trying to think of which page it was. It was near the end of your presentation uh on the LSMU mixed use um answer to question 12. Oh yeah. Um so the one thing that wasn't listed there was though residential use. Oh it's it's because this is a truncated chart, right? Yes. Yeah. So residential use can um the full chart would take like three pages. Okay. Okay. And it it includes multif family garden apartments and town homes and stuff like that. Right. But so residential use would fall as acceptable obviously in residential but it would fall pure residential in business park or downtown core or or you know where would residential uses fall and is a pure residential does it fall and under the LSMU? Um so so there would be like a breakdown of the residential um use classes and then uh it I'll have to go from memory of what's it's per I'm

pretty sure that in the LSMU it's it's a P permitted for multifamily. Yeah. Okay. That's that's what I was assuming the answer was, but I just I just had to ask. Um, since I'm the one who's probably been most focused on the fact that I really want us to have us see this community have some mixeduse development and and you know, I I know that there's three, but there's really two and one smaller cuz that triangular one, I don't know what the heck you're going to do with it. It's sort of like the reason we have a gas station. Uh the Circle K basically is there was really nothing you could do with that property other than put a gas station on it because it's just a weird shape and you can't when you start looking at setbacks and so on. You drop that triangle down to right, you know, almost nothing. Um so, you know, it it's we got we got two sites and one is now going to become a residential Mhm. If assuming we're moving forward in some fashion. Um so I just want you know clarification on I do appreciate the explanation about that we can put uh mixed use in other areas. So I do I greatly do appreciate that and that does alleviate a little bit of my concerns. Um my next question really is is for uh Mr. for pots and the development team, which is the I guess the concern I've got is it's been 2 years by your own acknowledgement um since you've spoken with the neighbors and now you're asking us on a and and you kind of raised the question on on a good faith basis to that that you're going to resolve the issue in terms of screening for privacy with the neighbors.

Well, my question really becomes, okay, other than somebody complaining to uh director Cooper, as you mentioned, what happens if there isn't a satisfactory develop, you know, uh resolution to that issue? and and and that's my biggest concern because I think longtime neighbors uh residents of the city deserve a um certain recognition and and so that that's what I' I'd love to get some commentary on. I'll give you the best commentary I can. I I don't think I said we would resolve the issue, but we'll make a good faith effort to work with the neighbors to come up with a solution that helps to alleviate the issue. Uh is there a chance where the neighbors aren't happy with any resolution? Certainly. Um is there anything that we could do about that? Probably not. So, I mean, we're happy to work with a, you know, a landscaping resolution, fencing resolution, whatever is feasible, um, and works for the neighbors, but I mean, I can't stand here and guarantee that the neighbors are going to be 100% happy with any resolution understood. And I don't think anybody's necessarily looking for 100%, you know, I think 100% would be no project, right? I mean, that that's, you know, um, so I'm not even sure that would be the correct answer to make them 100% happy, but maybe. Um, yeah. I mean, you know, certainly we'll we I mean, we could sit here and and work it out in in a public form and try to figure out how many trees it would take and what species of tree it would take and where

it's going to be planted, but I think that's going to be a shotgun answer to uh to the problem. I I agree, but I think that's part of the um as you heard from from the Thomases that their concern is the fact that these conversations haven't happened. And so now we're at, you know, 1159. A decision needs to be made one way or another. And there's zero progress on what, and I'll speak for myself, I won't speak for my other commissioners, but to me is an important consideration in in evaluating, you know, what we're looking at here. Um, and you know, this is one where I I really think you guys should have been here and you should have reached out to the neighbors, should have looked at the comments. Um, because I I'm assuming, and staff can correct me if I'm wrong here, but that after each of the meetings, staff provided the feedback to you and for whatever reasons, no efforts were made. And and that's very disheartening to me to now look at this and kind of go, okay, so we're going to make a good faith effort, but if we really can't get it resolved, well, we're just going to go ahead. Excuse me. We're just going to go ahead and, you know, kind of tough luck on on uh those neighbors. That doesn't sit well. Yeah. there. I mean, you know, I I I couldn't even go into all the details of of why the meetings were scheduled still happened when the applicant wasn't here and and all that went into that. But there was a great deal going into, you know, whether the project could even be feasible based on staff conditions and other things that were being worked out that if there was no project, there was really no need to work out with the neighbors. Um, and so I I think those

were the bigger considerations. You know, is there going to be a project? Can we resolve all these issues? you know, the way the meeting thing went. I'm I'm I don't even want to get into the hows and wise of that because I'm not 100% sure. Um, very unusual that we wouldn't be here at the first meeting for any project and at every other meeting for any project, but here we are. I mean, that's the way it went down and and it's unfortunate in a lot of ways. I I appreciate the cander. I do. So, thank you, Commissioner Alman. I think that's where uh if the if the commission wants to add a condition and say good faith negotiations um and that way uh both sides would engage in those good faith and that timing for that could be prior to wish of the first building permit. Yeah. There's a lot of time before we get from Oh yeah. this meeting to to any uh dirt being you know moved around or anything. Yes. So, there's there's quite a a road still ahead of us as well. Yeah. There's a whole lot of permitting processes that need to occur and so on, but but I'll I'll comment to our um city attorney that I'm less concerned with the good faith effort because that's what the applicant mentioned. What I'm what I'm concerned with really is not the effort, but the good faith resolution. So that's where I'm at. And I don't think you can I I don't think we can say a good faith resolution because it's impossible to you know create who defines and it creates too many legal issues. So part of the legal term is is that process. So the term of art would qualify what you're saying.

Yeah, that that's it for me at this point. So, thank you, Commissioner Plumber. Yeah, I I'll I'll just say a few things. You you can say thank you. Um the um the design by itself is is nice. I think we all agree that the the aesthetics of it all, the thoughtfulness of placements of doors and houses and courtyards and whatnot. I think that's that's not what's under under um under scrutiny here. Uh I think, you know, the due diligence has been done by the developers is accurate. You've had time. You've had to work with staff. Um but I'll I'll just echo um Commissioner Alman's notes that, you know, there's still human factors involved here and that and that is our neighbors. that are are people that live in this in this community and they have a valid concern and so I know that there's contingencies that we need to put in this or um considerations to be made uh to Commissioner Alman's point I think we all echo this that good faith resolution is what we really want to seek for our neighbors so that other than that I mean the project looks nice thank you um so I do have a question. Um, again, thank you for considering the our neighbors. Do you know if you're going to decide if we're going to rent or sell the town homes? I do not. Not yet. Okay. Because that's going to make a difference on the type of neighbors we have. Yeah. So, with that, if there are no other commissioner comments, I will go ahead and enter request a motion. Chair Muhammad, did you close the public hearing? Okay. Yes. Thank you. Sure. Thank you.

We're going to hear from the applicant. Uh commissioners and members of the public. Uh, thank you for the time and the opportunity to speak to you today. Um, can you state your name, please? Yeah, my name is William Yay. You guys have been getting my last name wrong the entire evening. I'll forgive you for that. So, um, who are we and what are we doing in town? So, my father is Edward Yay. He's an entrepreneur. We moved to Salana County in Fairfield where I grew up uh, when I was six. And uh when we came here, we didn't have much, but he's an entrepreneur. So he started a business uh he started a business called Cinder, which is an industrial manufacturing business, liquid separation, very technical, and we still run that business to this day. And I have an older brother. He was involved in the business a long time. I've dabbled in family businesses my entire life in my family. Um, and uh, I lived in Valo for a short period of time, then I moved to Molly Creek, but I still work out of Vakavville every day. And uh, our story is that we're um, you know, a family that's hardworking with, you know, conservative fiscal values. Uh, we the business has been successful and we've been very fortunate over the years uh, that Cinder has been successful and is kind of like the main source of wealth in our family. But out of that grew uh the need to invest in diversify and so we got into real estate and we did so to uh essentially not pay somebody else. So we bought the building down the street from where we are operating out of and we still operate out of that building today. In 2013 I joined the family business specifically in real estate. And so I became an agent and then I became a broker and I managed my family's portfolio. We manage our own money. We don't manage anybody else's money. This land was purchased by us in

cash with the intention of developing it into something great. Uh we I'll say that the decision-m in our family is very very straightforward. There's no investment committee. The investment committee is when I see my dad in the mornings and we have our daily meeting. And we are not in the business of wasting money. We're not in the business of making bad investments. We're in the business of building things for the long term and building a legacy that we can be proud of and passing that along to future generations. And in that sense, I view myself as a steward just as my father has created himself as an example for me, my brother, as a steward of a family legacy that he's starting. He pays himself less than I get paid. Okay? There's two types of CEOs. Ones that overpay themselves and ones that underpay themselves. He is the latter, not the former. Okay? And I view myself as a steward of that legacy. Um, my hope is that what we build here in American Canyon, in addition to the rest of the portfolio, all the businesses that we are working on can grow and grow with future generations, including my kids. I have a 5-year-old, an 8-year-old, and 11-year-old. And that's our those are our values. So, we live proximate. We're not in American Canyon. Um, and there's been questions raised with regard to our experience. Um, I will say that we do have a variety of different real estate investments in the portfolio. I am the director of investing in real estate and I underwrite with my team and we manage and we lease and we fix leaky toilet calls at houses that we have in the portfolio. And um, we just are not in the business of building something that's going to turn into a ghetto because that's bad business. really bad business. Uh you don't go and develop something like this for tens of millions of dollars with the idea of squandering it. And we're not in the business of building things and then turning around

and selling them. We don't burn and turn, right? This is something that's going to stay in our portfolio for the long term. And that's why you see, you know, some of some of you have been perceptive to pick up on the differences in the design of the exterior and of the units, right? They don't look like other things in town, right? It's not a three-story walk up product. You know what it is? Every single other development in town is multif family. Do you know why? Because it's cheaper to build that. It's cheaper to build that. That's why. Okay. Um I'll address the question of uh are we going to are we going to build these to rent or build these to sell? And we uh there is a tenative condom map that was submitted with the application. So, our intention is that these will be individually deed and they will have the ability to be individually alienated or sold. Okay. Um that said, California is a very latigious state, right? If you've ever touched a condo somewhere in the East Bay or what have you, year 8, year 9, there's always lawsuits to come up because guess what happens? The HOA gets together and they go hire an attorney. They say, "Ah, look at this crack. Ah, look at that construction defect lawsuit. That's why things cost so much in the state." Okay? That's why nobody wants to build something and sell it immediately, especially in a condo context. So, sorry this is more detailed than you guys care to hear, but I think it's important to have this type of conversation so that you understand it's not some greedy developer coming to town looking to make a quick buck at the expense of the community. That's not what's happening here. Um, so we do intend on u building these for sale eventually if we choose to. Again, I just told you that we hold on to things. We build things of value. We try to build things that are great and then we try to hold on to them for the long term. So the fate of it is uncertain, right? Oh, are we gonna sell this? Well, is the tariff going to go up to 140% tomorrow? Is Jerome Pal going to be fire? I nobody knows the answer, right?

Where's that C crystal ball? I would love that too, right? Nobody knows. I can't tell you with certainty. Ah, this is going to happen. Ah, that's going to happen. Right? the industrial developer would have told you 5 years ago this thing is going to be built in two years but guess what it didn't happen right so our intention again I can only tell you what the intentions are what do we want to do what's our goal and our mission here okay um are we going to manage ourselves yes okay I am young and perhaps foolish but I believe that when you manage things yourselves when you do things yourselves not only do you learn in that process but you end up with a better outcome nobody cares about your investment like you do 100%. We've had third party managers for our properties. Some have been okay. Most of them have been terrible. So, we don't trust people very easily. So, we're going to manage this thing ourselves. I have a small team. They're experienced in management. They've managed, you know, communities of hundreds of units before, multiple communities. I have confidence in their ability and I have confidence in myself to lead that team to manage this property successfully. um and to the satisfaction of the neighbors in the community. Parking um you know why did we put so many parking spaces in? Did you guys notice that? And that they're not tandem either. You know why? Because I think tandem parking is stupid. Nobody uses tandem parking. I see tandem parking properties all the time. What is the point of tandem parking? It's not useful. So we said, well, what would we want if we were to live in this community? I lived in a town home that's looks kind of like this in terms of layout. And guess what? has side by side two-car garage. It was amazing. We could park two cars in the garage and they would fit and there were no parking issues. There was no guest parking in that community. But guess what? Everyone parks their cars in the garage and we will enforce that. I'm a a strange American in that I park my cars in my garage. I don't park them on the street. Nobody does that. Okay. My wife backs in a three row SUV into our tiny little

1964 garage and I park head in because we park our cars in the garage. That's where they belong. My opinion. Sorry, I digress. Um, what else can I tell you? Uh, the good faith effort. Okay, the screening, right? It's not a requirement of ours. It's not a requirement of ours. Why did we defer uh or ask for continuence? Because there's a lot that goes into developing anything. And you've got a taste of that today if this is your first planning commission hearing. There's a lot that goes into it. Is this project even financially feasible? I can't tell you that it's financially feasible right now. I have no idea because we need to put the performer together. We need to understand what the cost of the off-site improvements are. We need to understand what the interest rates are for construction insurance. What's the permanent financing situation look like? What are the rents going to be like? There's a million balls in the air right now. I can't tell you. Um that's why we ask for continuance because you know 10 days before according to you know procedure you have to you get the you get the conditions of approval and then it's like oh holy moly there's some stuff on here that we've never seen before. We have to digest and figure out well what does that mean for us? Can we stomach and pay for those developments? And I'll I'll mention another thing. Our development is not very big. 100 units is probably one of the smallest multif family developments in town. The lodge in Napa Junction 216 units. Um was it Canyon Ridge and Napa Pl. I'm getting Napa Junction something. Canyon Ridge it's like a 157. Like we're on the smaller side. And when you have a project that's that small, what happens is the cost of development goes up. I have to pay Jeff the same amount of money whether I'm building a thousand units or I'm building five units. Okay? So there's economies of scale. We don't have that benefit here because this site is a little bit smaller. But we still wanted to take it on because we think, hey, it's it's an interesting idea. It's an interesting project. We think that we can do it better than a lot of these incumbents in town. That's how businesses get started. You've noticed that we only have two different unit

types. Anybody notice that? Do you know why that is? Because it's cheaper to develop that, right? Versus if I have five different unit types, 10 different unit types. Some communities in town which will remain unnamed have like 12 different unit types. What is the point of that? It just drives up the cost. I would love to pay Jeff more, but not that much. Okay. Um, what else? Did I address everything? So, oh, and going back to the screening. So, yeah, we can I can't tell you I can't guarantee you an outcome to Jeff's point, but I can tell you you know who we are now. You know, we're not going anywhere. You know, we build things to last and to keep, and we want to come to an amicable resolution, even though it's not really our responsibility. We're operating within the confines of the law, within the confines of the building code, local serving mixed use, the Broadway district specific plan. We're not violating any of those rules, right? We're in compliance with everything. Um, the reason why we do that is because we want to be a good neighbor, right? Another note on uh privacy. Most of the communities that you see developed, their railing is just these ballusters and they're whatever four inches apart per code and you can see right through them. You can see all their junk. You can see all the crap that they store on the porch, right? And I'm like, I don't like that. I think that's a poor look. I think that's a messy look and I think that doesn't provide for the privacy that the resident in that unit would expect and desire and the privacy of neighbors to that community, right? Um, and so we de purposely developed these oversized patios. Number one, because who wouldn't want more outdoor space? It's larger than you will find anything that you'll find. It's the full width of the unit. And we purposely made it such that it's not 100% opaque, but you can't see what's going on. So from that perspective, you're taking up however tall that that railing is going to be. If someone's in the living room, you're not going to be able to see in and they're not going to be able to see out to the neighbors, right? For people that are on the second floor. So there's been a lot of design thinking involved in

this. Not only from the perspective of how do we like respect the neighbors privacy, how do we respect the the privacy of the tenants to move into these units, but also from a well, what would we want if we were living in a community like this? And I would want a larger deck area. I would want a larger patio area because I think that's more useful, right? The units uh are smaller for sure. We think that they're more usefully designed. We think there's less wasted space on the interior. And the whole point of that is get people as affordable a product as possible that has everything that they need, right? Two bed, two and a half bath, three bed, two and a half bath. Same spec as other units in town, but smaller by hundreds of square feet. Okay. Why do we do that? Jeff mentioned affordable by design. I need to trademark that term. Okay, that's our vision for how do we contribute our little bit to solving the housing crisis in the state. Can we develop something that's more efficient that doesn't require so much expense in terms of design in terms of buildout? It's it's stamp and repeat. The less unit types you have, the more affordable it is, the easier it is for panelization of that product to come in and to set it up like an erector set. There's efficiencies that you get when you do that and that's what we did that. Okay. So, useful design, attractive design, efficient design, bed and bath count, nice amenities that you wouldn't find elsewhere. So, um yeah, I I can't I can't guarantee that we're going to come to an amicable resolution, but I can promise you again it's a good faith effort that we will work with them to try to address their issues. Um I apologize that we didn't come on the other meetings. I didn't know we were on the agenda, frankly, because we said, "Hey, we need more time to figure out these off sites and the conditions of approval." In truth, uh, that's what was going on. So, um, I hope I addressed everybody's questions. I'm happy to take others to the extent that there are others. Thank you. I appreciate you again being here and for addressing our

the questions that we had. And just for clarification, our senior planner's name is William He. So, we're not saying your name wrong. Oh, but we don't have the same last name. So, that's where you But you were saying you were we were saying your name wrong. William Yay. William. It's actually Y if you want to get But you were saying ye. So, but that's okay. We might have been talking about the guy behind you, but No, no, you were mentioning me. Okay, Jeff got it wrong. Anyways, Commissioner Alman, I too would like to thank you. I wish we would have heard this a couple of meetings ago or even frankly at the beginning of this meeting. Um, because you did shed some very valuable light on on who you are, what you're doing, what the process is and so on. And I'm assuming that the uh neighbors um appreciated hearing this and I hope that they now, you know, feel at least okay because they they're the questions that that they raised were good questions in terms of what's your experience? Have you done this before? Are you going to manage? And you've answered all of that. And as far as I'm concerned, you answered it very nicely. um you know I mean and and with what I was hoping to hear and what I'm assuming they were also hoping to hear that you are going to hold the property that you are going to self-manage it so it's not going to be hired out to some third party manager who's just looking to you know I got to keep it full I got to keep it full I don't care who it is we bring in as it's I also um understand your comments about construction defect and it is very common for the first decade for people who even if they do plan on building a condo development. They will build it to condo standards and

then they will rent it for 10 years just so they get past the construction defect lawsuit issues and then as tenants move out because you can't really kick them out but as they move we are in California other states you could kick them out but we are in California. So, as they move out, that's when all of a sudden, unit by unit, they go and become condos for sale. So, you know, I I get it. Um, and I'm mentioning some of this just to explain because my background is I'm a shy guy. So, I do subdivision bonds. I do public works performance and payment bonds. I understand the world. Yeah. That you know, you're in which you're working. Um, but I don't know that others necessarily have that same background. So, sometimes I will go off just to kind of give some clarity, but no, I just um really appreciate it. I know that that there's no guarantee for a outcome, but the fact that you seem willing to seriously engage in the conversation gives me a lot more um comfort at this point. So, thank you. Appreciate that. And I'm proud to say that the city of American Canyon has exceeded our reena allowance this year again or last uh last year in numbers but not in the different income groups. So with on that note, I appreciate you thinking of this or being here in the city of American Canyon or picking us. Okay. Are you gonna say you want to say something? No. Okay. With that, if there are no other questions for the developer, I would like to entertain a motion.

All right, with that I will make a motion to approve a design permit for the development of 100 multifamily residential units on a 4.34 acre site in the local serving mixeduse unit use zoning district in the Broadway district specific plan at the southwest corner of Crawford Way and Highway 29 APN058-302-00001 and 058-29- 01 One, two. Do I have a second? I'll second that. Nicole, roll call, please. Commissioner Marilyn Avalon. I. Commissioner Eric Alman. I'm going to give a quick little comment before I give you my vote, which is candidly probably about 20 minutes ago, I would have um either voted nay or abstained, but based upon the comments um from the developer, uh I am now willing to vote yay or I. Commissioner Shelby Goss. I, Vice Chair Charles Plamer, I, Chair Dvet Muhammad, I. Moving on to 285 Napa Junction, citation appeal. I will excuse myself. Item 4, 285, Napa Junction citation appeal. The recommendation is to decide whether the code violation was

appropriate appropriately cited um at the Napa junction and provide reasons for decision and direct staff to convey decision to appellet and code enforcement officer. Have we received any further updates on resolution? So, uh, pursuant to the instruction from the commission at its last meeting on April 29th, we emailed um the letter regarding uh the notice of this hearing to the attorneys um for the Lara family, Daniel Russo. It's a email address that we have previously communicated with the attorneys from before. We received no response. We also sent the letter via US mail and I do believe your your commission was BCC on that email communication. That is correct and I do recall that. Do we have any uh public comment on this? Is there is there anyone in the room that would like Sorry, I wasn't paying attention. just said public comment on the Napa Junction citation appeal. Is there anyone in the room that would that has comment on this item? And there's no one on Zoom. Director Cooper. Um, thank you, Vice Chair Plameumber. The, uh, question. Um, this is a continued item from prior meetings. Um and so staff is uh looking forward to um a decision by the planning commission uh whether the commission feels that the code violation was appropriately cited at 285 Napa Junction Road and um we look forward to your direction. Commissioners,

Vice Chair Plameumber, I um will just comment that I don't believe I'm seeing any member of the appellant, the Lara family present. Am I correct or am I mistaken? Correct. Commission Avalon. At our last um planning commission meeting, we kind of went back and forth on this one. So, just to um re reiterate again, there has been no communication regarding the emails and the letters that we have sent. Um was there a response regarding the home occupancy license? Uh, Commissioner Avalon, there was no response to that. Okay. With that, is there a motion for this vote? Do we need a motion or how what's the process? Yes, you would. Um so that it would be as the staff report um does indicate it would be um whether the violation occurred and um caused the property owner caused or maintained the violation. So as director Cooper said we would need the motion and the the roll call vote. Okay. I will be glad to before you do that just if I can make a comment. I think I think this commission and and all of us agree that if the um the cited appellant can't be in court or not court be in this commission meeting to uh to discuss the the further continuence that we've continue to continue this with staff recommendations and and opportunities. I think we don't really have a choice do we? Yeah. Yeah.

that that I would I would tend to agree and I think uh our voting is likely to uh again um show that. But so I will make a motion um that we decide whether the code violation at 285 Napa Junction was appropriately cited and provide reasons for the decision and direct staff to convey the decision to the appellant and code enforcement officer and that we have a vote on it. Is there a second? I'll second the motion. Roll call, please. Commissioner Marilyn Abalon. I Commissioner Eric Alman. The code violation was appropriately cited. So I Commissioner Shelby Goss I. Vice Chair Charles Plamer I and Chair Devet Muhammad is recusing herself from this item. I do want to make sure that the clarification of what you said that the code uh enforcement was properly cited is part of the motion if that was the intent. So could you please rephrase uh so that we can make sure that that um was adequately conveyed? Sure. Um, so I will make a motion that uh on the 285 Napa Junction Road uh citation that the code violation was appropriately cited and and that [Music] um staff should convey the decision to

the appellant and the code enforcement officer uh after our vote. And could you specify uh whether or not the reasons contained in the staff report are the reasons for the um Oh, yes. And and that the reasons for the decision are those uh that were contained in the staff report. Thank you. Yeah, if we could redo that vote so that it's clear. I will I will second the motion again. Okay. Just Okay, we have a second. Give me one second. No problem. Roll call when you're ready. Thanks. Okay. Um, wait. Okay. Commissioner Marilyn Abalon. I, Commissioner Eric Alman. Again, there was no doubt about the code violation. So, I Commissioner Shelby Goss I. Vice Chair Charles Plamer. I. and chair det Muhammad has recused herself from the item. Yes, please. I'm sorry. Thanks. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and move on to management and staff oral reports. Right. Thank you, Director Cooper. Thank you, Chair Muhammad. Um some of the highlights in the community development department um this month with includes um Canyon Estates. Um we have a recent uh submittal of some additional lots and they will be submitting uh what we call master plan

building permit applications. So we're excited. Um unlike the prior project, there are about seven different floor plans out there in Canyon Estates. And so they'll be submitting uh plans for us to review them so that when they're approved, then they can start producing the homes uh efficiently. So, we're looking forward to that moving forward. Very excited about that. On the second page, outfront billboards zone change. Um, we're coord staff I'm coordinating with the finance director on obtaining some additional information to uh discuss the matter with the applicant. So, it is moving slowly, but we it is moving forward. Um, and ultimately, if it goes forward, it will come to the planning commission for recommendation to the city council. at a future meeting. Uh lots of construction happening in town. Um not too much to report there. Um there is I'm not sure if I mentioned this at the last meeting, but we did recently get um a building permit submitt for Watson Ranch Lot 7. Um that's a project with smaller lots. Um and they have uh two different types of homes. Um it had a lot of floor plans uh also in that project as well. And uh so that's um a new submitt we have for building permits. So it's it's moving forward which is nice to see. Um on Tuesday the city council approved the comprehensive general plan update and the environmental impact report and the zoning code amendments. Um so very excited about that. The airport land use commission which is required to also review uh the general plan changes and the zone changes um

happened on May 7 and uh it sailed through with without any opposition or or concern. Um very appreciative of the Napa County staff in their efficiency in absorbing all of the information because you saw the packet. It's pretty thick. Um they did a great job of looking at that. We had met with them and kind of walked them through it. So I hope that helped. Um so the next stage after this would be um the um second reading on the zone changes. So other than that, we're going to tidy up all the red lines and get everything packaged so that it's a nice complete document and and then we can envision the next change. But the comprehensive update really is a once in a generation activity. Um there is a exciting project happening with the Napa Valley Transportation Authority um for the entire county. They're working on a plan to further bicycle and pedestrian uh mobility in Napa County called the active transportation plan. And uh at some point they'll be uh bringing that to you for a recommendation to the city council to incorporate it into our general plan to replace the the the bicycle and pedestrian plans which were done years ago, but they're separate documents. They're being combined now. Um there is a survey that they've just released um looking for input from Napa County and American Canyon residents. And so, uh, we'll be working with our communications, um, folks to get the word out and and hear what's on your mind about what's important to help improve pedestrian and bicycle mobility in American Canyon. So, that'll be coming to your inbox soon. Or, uh, if you're if you're someone who who um uses

Facebook, you'll probably see something there. And then um some sad news to report. Tonight is youth commissioner Ramadep Jawanda's last meeting with us. She's graduating from high school and we're very proud and pleased with your uh questions and and ability to absorb this strange world we live in. and contribute and uh very excited for your future. Thank you very much and and um we'll miss you. I'm going to add lib and say you've done a phenomenal job. You really have. Round of applause. [Applause] Oh, and and Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. And also um we also are looking forward to the town's big street fair meet me in the streets coming up June 11th um and then again July and August and uh community development department thanks to Nicole's organization is going to be present there and so we'll be uh volunteering commissioners to come and join us but we're also going to be having folks from uh the Napa Sonoma Accessory Dwelling Unit Center, come Napa Housing Authority coming and and others if we can that we can we can we can we can bribe or coers. Now, is that volunteering or volunting? Well, if one doesn't happen, the other

will. So, either way, so we appreciate it when the commissioners come. All right. Thank you, Director Cooper. Commissioners, do we do you have any you would like to add? Nope. All righty. Well, then I would like to adjourn this meeting. 8:28. Good night, American Union. Give me one second. And since