Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to this uh planning commission meeting Tuesday, March 17th uh for the city of Atascadero. Uh happy St. Patrick's Day to those of us wearing green. Um we will go ahead and do the pledge of allegiance. Roll call, please. Whoa, now I'm loud. Commissioner Frell.

Commissioner Jones, present. Commissioner Pachio here. Vice Chairperson Anderson here. Chairperson Keane here. Five present, two absent.

Okay. If you're attending in person or listening to the commission meeting tonight, welcome. We will go ahead and open public comment. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the commission on any matter not on this agenda and over which the commission has jurisdiction. There's no one in the gallery tonight. So, I'll go ahead and close public comment. We will move on to the consent calendar and I'll reopen public comment. Seeing as there are still no people in the gallery, I will close public comment on the consent calendar. Uh commission, they can't comment online. No, we closed that. Um any committee members uh wishing to ask any questions about or pull an item from the consent calendar?

No. Okay. Can we have a motion? Move to approve. Second. Roll call, please. Sorry, who was second? Frell. Thank you. Commissioner Jones. Commissioner Frell, I. Commissioner Pacio, yes. Vice Chairperson Anderson, yes. Chairperson Keane, yes. Motion passes. Okay, we will move on to planning commission business. Tonight, we are going to choose a new chair and vice chair. So, we will have to nominate someone and get them a second. Anyone want to nominate a chair?

I would like to nominate Commissioner Anderson for chair. And I Okay, I will second that nomination for Commissioner Anderson for chair. And I will nominate Commissioner Pinacio for vice chair. I'll go ahead and second that nominate uh nomination for vice chair. And then you'll have to accept the nominations. You have to say yes. I'll do it. Yes, I accept. I'll accept that nomination. Thank you very much. Okay. So, can we get a vote on those? Do we do those separately?

Yeah, we'll do them separately. So, we'll do chair first, vice chair next. Okay. So, electing chairperson Anderson is what we're passing, right? Okay. Um, Commissioner Pachio, yes. Commissioner Frell, yes. Vice Chairperson Anderson, yes. Chair Keane, yes. Motion passes. I'd like to vote, too. I'm sorry, Commissioner Jones. Oh, yes. It's a I vote for that. Thank you. Sorry about that. Made a scribble on your name. punishment for not wearing green. The only one that did wear green. Oh,

yeah. I redact that statement. Okay. For vice chair. Vice chair. So, this is um for Commissioner Pachio. Correct. Yes. Price. Okay. Um Chairperson Keane. Yes. Now, Chairperson Anderson, yes. Commissioner Frell, yes. Commissioner Jones, yes. Commissioner Pacio. Yes. Motion passes. And now we play musical chairs. You get to come sit over here. Yeah.

And you get this spot. Well, thank you. I I appreciate the nomination, the acceptance, and the uh the opportunity to serve as chair. I've got some big shoes to fill. Tori's been done a great job for the last two years, and we really appreciate her. Thank you for your service. All righty. Okay. And congratulations on your acceptance.

Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much for the nomination. Appreciate it. Yes. Fantastic. Okay. So, where are we at here? Give me just a second to get up to date on this. Where were we? We're finish public comment presentation. You had the opportunity. I'm going to go on with this one. This one always helps me better. we go. Okay. Business and Okay. We're going to go to community development staff reports and uh who are we giving that?

Yeah. So, tonight we're presenting our annual general plan and housing update that we send to the state every year and Sam Mountain is going to give the presentation.

All right. Fantastic. Thank you. Okay, good to see all of you again. Um, as uh Kelly mentioned, my name is Sam Mountain. I'm a assistant planner in the community development department and I am here to give our annual general plan and housing element report. Um, just for a little bit of background, this is a report that state law requires that we do every year. It's actually technically two separate reports, but it's kind of a two birds one stone situation. Um, HCD, which is the state's Department of Housing and Community Development, requires that we send them essentially a very big spreadsheet uh with all of our housing permitting data for the year alongside um some progress basically on programs that are in the city's general plan. Uh, in addition, uh, LCI, formerly OPR, a lot of acronyms, but that's the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, requires that we send them, um, essentially a report, uh, similar to the former of progress on our general plan goals and policies. So, this is just a little bit of an update for all of you. Um, so you can see what's going on and see essentially what is being sent to the state on behalf of the city. So again, just a little bit of background there. Um, like I mentioned, this is for housing progress and specifically for RENA, which is short for the regional housing needs allocation. That is a essentially a uh a number of housing units that are required to be built um in certain regions. um that is sent down to the Slowcog or St. Louis Abby Bisbo Council of Governments and through a deliberation process slowcog essentially gives each city within its region a certain number of housing units at different affordability levels that the state essentially wants us to set as goals to be built over the planning period. So so far uh as you can see on

this table here we are making pretty good progress. We uh have exceeded our Arena goals about 3 years early by one unit for our lowincome housing development goals uh by 56 units for moderate income. Um and we are well on our way for market rate. Little bit of an overview for 2025. In general, uh the complexity of pro of projects has increased. We're seeing uh quite a bit more mixed use and larger scale multif family uh being applied for and developed in the city. Uh a bit fewer kind of smaller scale projects. But on the other hand, uh we are seeing fewer entitlements and more staff level review. So, uh, fewer, for example, conditional use permits, uh, or large-scale zone changes. Uh, and a lot of that is due to recent state laws as well as recent city initiatives like our objective design standards, hillside grading guidelines, and water course adjacent development standards that make it so that we essentially set clear objective goals for development applicants to meet in order for their projects to be reviewed solely at the staff level rather than having to go through, for example, design review committee, planning commission, or city council. As I mentioned in the last slide, we are on track uh for our arena goals for low and moderate income units um and have actually exceeded them um and are also on track for market rate. Very low income is a little bit of a different story uh in large part due to the fact that those types of projects require pretty specialized and various funding and grant sources for the applicants. Um the city doesn't build housing. The state is at least at this point pretty well aware of that and so there is no punishment for not meeting that very low guideline verina. Um but in order to be able to get there really what the uh applicants need which in large part would be uh applicants like Haslow for example are grant sources and those are very difficult to get um in a city that doesn't have a disadvantaged community

status. Um that said we are planning for more units in the general plan update for the next arena cycle. Essentially, once we get to 2028 and there's kind of a new cycle of RENA numbers that are released and goals for the city to meet, we are updating our general plan through the general plan update process in lock step to be able to accommodate more units being built in the city and likely um kind of higher goals for the number of units to be built from the state kind of passing down to the city. Um and you can see this little chart on the bottom here. Uh we are about 70% of the way through the arena cycle or the planning cycle. uh and we have built about 74% of the total housing units and so we are we are well on track. So just a quick review of some of the bigger projects that are in the pipeline right now. Um in terms of residential and mixed use uh Emerald Ridge over on El Camino Rial, it's uh kind of across from Fence Factory. Um that was originally built out quite a while ago under its first phase and we're now seeing the second phase being built. Um, we currently have 72 units that are under construction there. Within Del Rio Marketplace, uh, there is 114,000 square ft of commercial space as well as 40 apartment units that are currently under construction. Dove Creek on the corner of Santa Barbara Road and El Camino Rial uh, includes a 20 room hotel, around 15,000 ft of commercial tenant space, and 71 condominium units that are under construction or rather soon to be under construction. Um, similarly, Barrel Creek uh is currently still in planning phases, but is planned to have 60 units and a little over 53,000 square ft of commercial space. We also have Del Rio Ridge, which is a pretty notable affordable housing project here in the city. Um, that is slated to have 41 extremely low, very low, and low-income units, and that'll help us kind of get closer to that goal for the very low income. And then in addition to that,

um, Echko is currently constructing 30 additional beds. uh kind of in lock step with uh planning commission approval within the past couple of years of an expanded meal program and uh family center um as an addition to their existing building. There are also some pretty notable commercial projects in the pipeline. Uh we have Beach and Biscuits um that is under construction kind of kitty corner from the Carlton over in the former Flums gas station. Um that is going to be as I understand it pretty good breakfast food. So looking forward to that. We also have Garden City Market and that is on the corner of uh El Camino Rial and East Mall uh that has around uh 5,000 square feet of vendor spaces and that's in a former Century 21 building. And so through that, we're seeing kind of a change from uh a use that doesn't generate a lot of spontaneous foot traffic to one where people can look inside of the window, say, "Oh, that looks cool," or "That looks tasty." And be able to walk in kind of energize downtown around Sunken Gardens a little bit. In addition, uh we have the uh Winter's Garage renovation. That is the historic garage building that's kind of next to Brew on El Camino Rial that's uh been under construction for a bit, but uh they have completed the roof and most of the work on the Shell right now. They're doing tenant improvements for I believe a fur restaurant and a tea house. And then there are going to be, I believe, two additional tenant spaces um that are kind of going to get filled with ideally restaurants or retail as well. Um, Del Rio Ranch was recently approved, not yet under construction, and I don't believe we've received building permit applications quite yet, but that's planned for over 9 acres of event, retail, and restaurant space, as well as some glamping areas, RV areas, and short-term rentals. Kind of meant to be a little bit of a destination for uh for tourism in the city. And then the Edge as well uh is a mixeduse development that's looking at around 20,000 square feet of commercial space.

Uh the edge is on El Camino, I believe. Kelly, do you have It's kind of just south of the uh Mission Oaks Plaza and the new buildings that are going up.

And a few highlights kind of at the city level here for 2025. Um we in planning have spent a very good chunk of the year focused on the draft uh the draft 2045 general plan or year is probably an understatement there, but that's now published for public review. Uh really proud of the work that's uh happened so far. In addition, as I mentioned earlier, we have the echo amendments for a family wing and expanded meal program. Uh we've again updated our ADU ordinance kind of trying to keep up with state law changing with ADUs uh for consistency with some of the state's streamlining standards for those. Um and uh bolded and underlined uh very proud of this. We exceeded our reena goals as I mentioned for low and moderate income units three years early. So, we're about 70% of the way through the cycle and have already exceeded those goals. In terms of building and construction permits that have been issued this year, um it has been a little bit of a slowdown from prior years just due to financing constraints, cost of materials, cost of labor going up, unfortunately. Uh but we do have a total of 1,676 construction permits that were issued uh in 2025 and 88 permits in total that were issued for new homes in the city. And uh with that, I will go ahead and open it up to any questions or discussion among the commission.

I'm dazzled. Thank you. You have any questions? Go ahead. Have a couple. Going back to slide three, please. On this arc of progress here, it looks very favorable. When is this deadline by? Is it by the end of 2027 or 28? I heard 28 offered, but I don't know if that was a January one reset or how that was tracked. Yeah, it tracks through the end of 2028. Oh, the end of 2020. Yeah, there's sometimes a little overlap when we prepare our housing elements um between the adoption date and the end of the reena cycle and they either get pushed forward as units or they get um held back as units.

And that leads to my next question. I think it was on slide four, but um when do we get the credit for them? Is it occupancy or is it when the entitlement and the permit is issued? It's final occupancy. Final occupancy. Okay. And then the last one um on slide six. I was just curious. Um 1676 is still a good permit number, but we're only talking about 88 for new residences despite that being a hard or a strong goal of the council and the city. Um are some of these other ones for ADUs or other where we're talking about maybe 150 to 200 units and what's the garden variety of the other bulk of the permits you want?

Sure. Um yeah, so that 88 includes single family, ADU, multif family. That's just all of the uh essentially permits for new residences in the city. Um the rest of those can be anything from commercial tenant improvements to uh re- roofs to, you know, anything. It's essentially all of our permanent activity for the year. And so that's aggregate for 25. We only had 88 permits for uh that is correct. Yeah, that's the total for new housing units. Um it is uh I put up the table here. There is a little bit of a decrease from previous years. Um, doing better than 22, but unfortunately it is still lower than 23 or 24. Thank you.

Okay, so I was looking at the um the program parts at the bottom and I just had some questions as to like how they work in Reena. So the first one was the water and sewer service providers. And so that talks about how we are working to get water and sewer to new developments, but our wastewater building thing. Oh my god, my brain. Um is like at capacity. So, if we need to build more units to use this facility that is already at capacity, is there a way for the state to help us do that? I know it's so naive and hopeful. We use that sentence all the time when we ask the state for money. Um, I don't know. Our regional partners are aware of our conundrum. There are other cities in similar situations, not even with sewer, but with other levels of infrastructure. Um we constantly ask the state for assistance in meeting some of those basic needs um in order to accommodate the growth that they are asking us to do. Um we have started the process for our wastewater treatment plant upgrade. Um we still don't know how we're going to fund it yet. So we are hoping to find some funding sources. Um, but we are in the process of determining exactly what that upgrade will look like, how flexible it will be for the future versus the expenditure and all of those very um fun items. So, no, the state has not committed any funding to that. We are hopeful that there will be some funding somewhere.

And so, how does that work when um approving new projects that will need waste water, sewer, water, all that stuff? like is is there a point where we can be like sorry we can't approve anything because we just can't facilitate any more capacity at all? There definitely can be. So our new general plan, you know, if we keep on track with our wastewater treatment plan update, um there's still the question of some of the aging infrastructure that is actually in the ground and and getting waste from the units and the commercial space to the wastewater treatment plant. So there's not just the whole new wastewater treatment plant that needs to be upgraded. There's a lot of infrastructure in the roads. Um and there are certain areas that are at higher capacity or have more um aged infrastructure than the rest of them. So, our new general plan actually has a policy in it that was done through um the analysis for the EIR where we will be requiring sort of an intent to serve or will serve letter for new development so that our public works department can analyze each development that comes in and ensure that we have capacity to move forward. And then when we're building new projects around other places in Ataskascan where there is not wastewater service um or yeah wastewater service um are we going to try to include a plan to get those properties on there as well?

No. The short answer short answer is no. We don't have a lot of ability to expand our wastewater system. There are a few designated areas that are called out in our lamp that are currently through the regional water quality control board areas of higher concern for septic failure or um water quality type situations. Um and so we do always kind of have on our mind that we do need to extend to some of those areas. There's actually a state um grant funding program for sort of lower income neighborhoods to be able to extend sewer service. and we do believe that one of those neighborhoods that was identified in our LAMP might qualify and so we are working towards that. Um but we do not have the funds to necessarily extend into those areas. If grant funding became available we would but we do not have plans to sewer the entire city ever

because the north side of town has a lot of land a lot of flat land that could be developed into more dense city but because it's all on septic tanks it's not I mean we just can't do it right now. Yeah. And we likely we will not um do that into the future. We still have a lot of capacity within our urban core where there is sewer services that we can add additional density to and we will not likely need to push out into those areas.

Okay. Thank you. I do love a good wastewater discussion. Um sorry I have more questions. Okay. Um Oh, you have more wastewater discussion. Go for it. I'll yeah I I'm gonna move on to another topic. So go for it.

So my question regarding the wastewater to piggyback um is based on the average number of approvals we've gotten over the last five or 10 years. How many more years do we have out before we reach capacity with the wastewater? Um, I imagine a project like that takes with uh funding, planning, design, construction, maybe 10 years, five to 10 years.

Yeah, I I'm I not in the public works department. Um, so I might say some things that are a little bit wrong, but I'm going to try really hard and I'll just put little asterisks there. Um, I believe that our plan for our new plant is about five years out. Um it was kind of a seven-year process and we've done a lot of the pre-planning and we're going into programming mode right now so that we can um get a design and sort of bid that out and then start construction. So I believe we're about 5 years out. It's interesting with the system that we have now being sort of more of a pond system. We are definitely at and nearing capacity, but there's a lot of flexibility built into a pond system that you don't always get with more of a closed plant type system. And so um you know because we have to accommodate for rain and some years we don't get enough rain and there there's a little bit of flexibility. So we're not at the point where we are saying we can't construct anything at this point in time. Um some of our deficiencies actually lean more towards the aging infrastructure than they do the plant at this time. So we believe that the stars will align and we'll get some funding and we'll build our new plant and then we'll get some funding to do some of the underground infrastructure and we'll be able to keep moving forward. But we are putting those checks and balances in place to ensure that we don't overload our system.

Great. Thank you. Another element of that as well is is that um a not insignificant number of units that are being built here um are ADUs or just new single family that are out on the west side that are reliant on septic systems in the first place. Um so naturally, you know, we we always have that hope and in our planning as well for wastewater expansion. Um but we also have plenty of development happening in the city that doesn't increase the load on our wastewater system at all.

Thank you. Um okay, so another one was housing rehabilitation and preservation. Um what does that mean? Like are we rehabbing houses that are falling apart? Are we rehabbing units that are already built? Like what? And this is program 4A. Um because it sounds like if you've got a deteriorating housing, which means somebody's in it and it needs to be rehabilitated, that's what this program speaks to. But I'm wondering about inhabitable units that need to be torn down and something new needs to be built there. Is that a thing that this is talking about? So it it can this, you know, the state in general doesn't like to lose any housing units and we try and track that. A lot of the um rehabilitation um that we see useful to this are are nonprofit organizations rehabilitating or preserving housing that might fall out of a deed restriction um or something like that. So we've had some nonprofits come in and rehabilitate housing uh for low-income veterans, for example. Um things of that nature. Um um I think Haslow or or Peoples have um purchased projects that were previously deed restricted and not owned by a nonprofit. The deed restriction was going to expire and so they purchased um projects in order to keep that low-income housing stock available. Okay. And then I think this is my last one. Yes. Um condominium conversion. It says to it says it talks about in chapter 12 the zoning regulations which I did go look at. Um and it talks about converting something into condominiums. My first thought was like an old warehouse into condos. Um but we don't

really have any big warehouses that would that that kind of conversion would happen. So is there other kinds of condominium conversion and what does that look like? And is that do we have any projects like that in the area? like is that a thing that we do like have?

Yeah. So, we we haven't seen many of these. Um the state has a lot of regulations about converting existing apartment units into condominiums and that's one of the thing that they like to make sure that we maintain regulations for. Um there's a lot about displaced persons in that condominium conversion ordinance and first right of refu refusal and things of that nature. So, we don't see a lot of them. It is it's an arduous process for somebody to go through. Um, interestingly, a lot of, maybe not a lot, but quite a few of our apartment projects are already condos and um, the owner of those chose not to sell them individually and so they retain the right to do that. And a lot of people will do that upfront because condominium conversions after somebody has moved in is very, very, very difficult. um we don't see a lot of commercial buildings being converted into residences in in our atmosphere and our um our economic condition that we have. That's not really something that we do here. Larger cities are kind of doing that when they need more housing and they're a little bit overcommercial. Um so we don't see a lot of condominium conversions, but we have our full chapter in our zoning ordinance that shows that we will comply with state law should one come in.

Okay. Thank you. Anybody else have any questions? No. All right. Well, that was fantastic. Does anybody Are there any other comments you'd like to make? No, you covered everything. Go ahead. Uh we will want to open up for public comment even though there doesn't appear to be anyone available for that but we do want to check that box.

Absolutely. Okay. At this time we'd like to open up the floor to public comment. Seeing no one we'll go ahead and close public comment. Thank you. And um any other comments or reports? I would just like to say I appreciate the size of the chart on page 15. You're quite welcome. We do um really like those magnifying glasses and we want to promote those in the city. That's why I do it digital. I can just stretch it.

They call that the easy print option. They're like just in case you need to bring this to planning commission or city council. This one's really easy and readable and then you print it out and it's like I don't I don't really think that it is. But is that is that like a negative font type? I mean, yeah, I I didn't bring my reading glasses tonight, so wasn't expecting to be in this chair. I was like, everything be on the screen. I'll be fine. Um, okay. Well, um, thank you so much. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Um, oh, we have the director's report.

Yeah, I have just a couple things to mention. Um, I don't know that I have anything insanely exciting. I think Chick-fil-A is moving forward to council um at the next meeting. So, that will be very exciting. Um at the last council meeting, we dove into zoning regul zoning districts that are proposed. Um we continued the discussion on mixed use zone 3 to the next council meeting because there were some conflicts of interest and we had a lack of quorum. Um so that discussion will be continued. Um, it was a very fabulous and healthy discussion that went till almost 10:00 at night. Um, but it covered a lot of our zoning regulations and the council direction for some of our new zoning districts. So, if you have a chance to go back and watch that or look at some of the highlights, um, that would be very informative for when you guys see the zoning ordinance before you. Um, we have not yet quite posted our EIR for public review for the general plan. that should be happening in the next few weeks. Um, and then we'll start the public comment period for that. Um, it it is pushing our timeline out a little bit for adoption of the general plan and zoning ordinance, which in doing so, we are hoping to bring some chunks of that zoning ordinance to you so that you don't have all 90,000 pages at once to go through. Um, and so we will be scheduling some meetings where we go through the uh similar topics that we went through at council. um so that everybody can be up to speed and and knowledgeable about what we're adopting when we come forward with the comprehensive code update. Um and then those council meetings that I think we've relayed to you before that were happening for the zoning code, some of those dates might shift a little, although some of them are probably the same. We're just going to take a little bit longer to go through some of the material. So, still keep up to date on that because it's very good um conversation and dialogue to understand for the zoning code update and helpful in having the public understand if they come up to you with questions what's going on.

Mr. Chair, one question. Any any questions or comments on the director report? Go ahead. Um when the the general plan update was here and and our planning director was here um there was a commitment to uh outreach and communications plan and I don't know that we've seen that since time's a hostile question about that whole public engagement strategy reclaiming my time. we can just see that as as part of the staff update at our next regularly scheduled meeting. That'd be great.

Yeah, I think when we um now I'm loud. Um when we bring back some of those items, we'll we'll bring that back or we'll bring it back at the next planning commission meeting during director's report. Um we are continuing our coffee with a planner series. Um that's every third Thursday and we um alternate between Amsterdam and Malibu Brew so that we can be around the park. Hopefully if somebody drives by and they don't know where we're at, they see us and they come say hi. Um we will be having some discussions about the general plan and zoning ordinance as part of those. Um we were also asked by the council to um specifically notify people if their parcels are specifically being um discussed and um have a potential option associated with them. Um so we will be notifying them directly. And then as we get into the um discussion about uses, there's also some conversations about how to let people know if they might be becoming a non-conforming use in any of the new zoning. So, we are expanding that um public sort of notification and outreach effort um to ensure that people truly understand what what is going on with their properties.

Thank you. And and what time is that at coffee with a planner? What time? It starts at 9. Starts at 9:00 a.m. 9 p.m. Okay. No, that's beer with a planner. Any further questions, discussion? No. All right. Well, with that, I will adjourn this meeting and we will be meeting again on When's our next meeting? What was our next meeting? 1 and third Tuesday. What date is that?

I just want to make sure. I just want to make sure. I don't want to announce it. If our our next regularly scheduled is April 7th. April 7th. Are there any items scheduled at this point? Fifth Tuesday in there. Do we have scheduled for April? I don't recall. There might not be, but we do have a extra Tuesday in there. So, something might pop up, so we should count on it and we'll let you know if we cancel. Okay. Next next schedule meeting will be noticed. All right. Thank you. With that, we'll adjourn.