Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'll tell you when we're live. Thank you.

Madam Chair, we're live.

Thank you so much. Um, welcome everybody to the regular meeting of the planning commission for the city of Baldwin Park. The time is 7:04 p.m. and we are going to start off with a pledge of allegiance and I am going to ask Commissioner Aas if you can please lead us that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um, can I please get a roll call?

Yes. Um, Chair Escobosa here. Vice Chair Miranda Dezip, present. Commissioner Pñena, present. Commissioner Arias, present. Commissioner Rodriguez, let let the record reflect that Commissioner Rodriguez is not uh not present. Um can I please get a motion to excuse Commissioner Rodriguez? I'll move to um excuse Commissioner Rodriguez from today's meeting. Second it. Please get roll. Chair Scabosa. Yes. Vice Chair Miranda Dit. Yes. Commissioner Pena, yes. Commissioner Audi, yes.

Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you so much. At this time, we will open public comment for anyone who wishes to speak on any item not on the agenda for tonight. Uh seeing no interest, we will now close public comment. And we will move on to the next item on the consent calendar, which are the minutes for the meeting that took place on March 25th of 2026. um would like to open it up to the commissioners to see if they have any comments or questions about those minutes. Okay. Um seeing no further comments, can I please get a motion to approve the minutes for the March 25th meeting?

I move to approve. I'll second. Please get a roll. Yes. Vice Chair Miranda Desipit, yes. Commissioner Pena, yes. Commissioner Aas, yes.

Motion carries. Thank you so much. Um, and now we are going to move to the next item on the agenda, which is an adoption of resolution number 2026-20 to deny development agreement number 26-01 and cannabis permit application number 23-03 for the new cannabis manufacturing and self-distribution business at the existing cannabis manufacturing facility within the IC industrial commercial zone located at 5023 Ramona Boulevard. Um, do we have a presentation?

Thank Thank you. I can speak to that. Uh per the applicant's request uh this this item is continued to a a date uncertain So, at this time, we're going to open up the floor for public comment if anybody wants to speak on the continuence. Seeing no interest, we are going to close it out. And can I get a motion to continue this item? Off calendar. I'll make a motion to continue the item. Off calendar.

Second. Can I please get roll? Chair Scabosa? Yes. Vice Chair Miranda Dip? Yes. Commissioner Pena? Yes. Commissioner Adas? Yes.

Motion carries. Thank you so much. Um the next item on our agenda is reports of officers. I see we have a special presentation on the local hazard mitigation plan update. Okay, we're good to go. So, thank you. Uh good evening, honorable chair and members of the commission. Uh before you all tonight is a special presentation going over the planned updates to the city's local hazard mitigation plan. Next slide, please. So first staff would like to provide a brief explanation on what exactly is a local hazard mitigation plan. Uh often referred to as LMHPS. Uh these documents identify risks, vulnerabilities, and long-term strategies uh for protecting people, property, and the environment uh from natural hazards. Local jurisdictions must have a FEMA approved local hazard mitigation plan uh to be eligible for FEMA's hazard mitigation assistance funding uh and are required to be updated every 5 years to continue that funding uh source. At their core, LMHPS must identify what are primary hazards of concern in a local community or area, which areas or facilities may be the most impacted by said identified hazard, um, and what are the potential impacts of said hazard to people, property, and infrastructure? Next slide, please. Naturally, the next question would be, well, what is hazard mitigation? Um, in summary, hazard mitigation refers to sustained actions taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk from natural hazards. Examples of mitigation actions include strengthening buildings to

reduce earthquake damage, improving storm water drainage systems to reduce flooding, uh, vegetation management programs to reduce wildfire risk, uh, mitigation actions help communities recover faster and reduce long-term disaster costs. Next slide please. Uh what are natural hazards? Of course. So the LMHP evaluates natural hazards that could affect the city of Balden Park. uh the ones that were identified uh by the uh city of Alden Park's hazard mitigation planning committee which is comprised of select individuals from city staff and outside uh uh uh resources include but are not limited to dam failure, drought, earthquake, extreme heat, high winds, inland flooding and urban wildfire. Next slide please. Oh, uh, as noted earlier, the plan is required by FEMA, uh, and must be updated every 5 years. Uh, maintaining a FEMA approve approved plan allows the city to remain eligible for hazard federal hazard mitigation grant funding that can support projects that reduce disaster risk, such as building resilient infrastructure and communities grant program. That's one of the programs that uh with a FEMA approved plan uh the city could seek funding sources for for improvements. Uh the city also seeks to update its LMHP to ensure that proper uh proper capital improvement projects or CIPs are scheduled to help support cities the city's existing infrastructure against previously identified uh natural hazards of concern such as increased flooding in select areas of the city. Next slide please.

Oh uh next stage of the project would be uh what I should clarify. So once the plan is completed uh it will be adopted by the Balden Park City Council and submitted to the uh California office of emergency services uh and FEMA for approval. Currently, the city of Balden Park is working with uh Constant and Associates, our selected consultant, to prepare a draft document for public review. The estimated release date for public review would be midsummer of this year and adoption by December of this year. So, it's moving at a good pace. The plan will guide mitigation projects and risk reduction efforts in the city over the next 5 years. Next slide. Most importantly, city staff is seeking input from all members of the public in helping to evaluate what measures, policies, or projects the city should prioritize as it relates to hazard mitigation. Community feedback on areas of prime concern, such as specific storm drains prone to flooding issues or overgrown landscaping that may pose a risk in urban wildfires, are critical in shaping the language and guiding vision of the LMHP. Next slide, please. With that being said, uh there are multiple ways that members of the community can participate in the LHP update process aside from waiting for the drafts to come into uh review. First, staff would encourage that every uh individual share this information with other members of the community or interested parties. As with more participation and awareness, this helps create a more substantial uh draft mitigation uh uh measures that could be implemented in the plan. Second, staff would encourage all those interested in completing an initial survey uh that has been published by our consultant team to help the city and gather feedback on what topics of

concern should be prioritized when drafting the LMHP. The survey link is on the QR code on this presentation and it has also been made available to the public on our website. And lastly, staff would like to note that the draft version of the LMHP will be made available later this year for public review and comment and that of course will also be posted on the city website um and made available to view in person at city hall upon request. This concludes staff's uh presentation. Um, and we're available for any questions or comments regarding this item. Thank you.

So now I will give the commissioners an opportunity to ask any questions. Thank you for the presentation. Um there was one slide that listed all of the potential na natural hazards um in the city of Baldin Park. Have they determined which one poses the biggest risk to to the community? Uh that is a good question as far as ranking them on priority. Uh I don't know if we have I know it's just been identifying them as a start.

I I believe that's part of the process, right? So we we're taking input. They're doing the data analysis now and the ranking will be one of the the major findings of the study.

Yeah, that would be really interesting. Um at least prioritizing at least the resources um and informing the residents and stakeholders. Um the other question I had, can you elaborate more a little bit again if you know the answer a little bit about the meth with the methodology to identifying those natural hazards? Um was it just looking or just just uh chatting with just the stakeholders or was there any sort of empirical data that led to it such as reports from from insurance um in the past or any of that sort? So there are certain hazards of note that are required to be um identified and evaluated under FEMA and Callowasa standards, but there are also opportunities where we can uh

focus or uh hone in on other uh concerns that may be more localized to us. Like for example, wildfires is one of them. Absolutely. Uh that you know in recent times has been more of a topic of conversation and more of interest. um especially urban wildfires which is very different than like let's say if you live on the hillsides uh a different kind of uh mitigation strategy that would be studied. Yeah. Um and then just my last question is I know and this is done every 5 years. So has this been done in the past with the city of Bin Park?

Uh the last updates to the local hazard mitigation plan were around uh 2010s. So it has been a little while. Um but the the updates are more for FEMA funding allocation. Um once you have an LMHP, you know, that's your guiding document up until the cities decide to update it. Um thankfully, we have the funding sources now to fund the updates. Um and of course with those updates, we would have uh the opportunities to seek additional funds or these mitigation measures once they are identified.

Gotcha. Okay. So it would be the city council's responsibility to again once uh the report is is is completed to in use that to inform again where is to use that funding to mitigate those risks. Correct. Um there were some examples noted in the presentation but one of them could be like um uh cleaning out of storm drains that are let's say key uh or prone to flooding. uh that could be something that with uh uh funding sources from FEMA uh could be prioritized now with the the local hazard mitigation plan acting as the guiding policy. Yeah, makes sense. Great. Thank you.

I have a question. Sorry, I'm reading it because I was thinking about um but as I'm understanding this is a plan that is being put together to prioritize to try to get some funding from FEMA and then these items will be prioritized I think naturally to determine where that funding goes. Um meaning to me that potentially there's there are going to be gaps between the hazards we've identified and the funding that we can provide. Um, has there do you know if there's been any other conversations around um perhaps tapping into other resources and maybe um strengthening existing community resources through local programs like the C program, the community emergency response team?

Um know if you want to add to that first. Yeah, I I don't have additional information about that. uh but that's something that we could look at and that that I'm sure will be fleshed out as we go through the process. I would like to add that one of the departments that of course is a key uh uh I don't know if the right word is stakeholder but um contributor to the plan would be our public works team and of course they manage you know our city infrastructure. So any any funding sources that let's say they already are aware of that you know could supplement um of course they would they are already in communication with our consulting team about that.

Well and then again if you're not familiar with it's not a funding resource necessarily. It it's um I don't want to get too much in the weeds of the context of it, but it's a it's a program that some of the cities around us tap into um Darti Lever, Asuza, Elmani, where they tap into community members and they train them on how to respond to natural disasters and a lot of the items that you've listed. And so it seems to be a pretty lowcost way of maximizing the resources that we already have because luckily in Baldwin Park we do have a lot of community members who want to be involved.

We can certainly take that um information and relay that to the consulting team. And then thank you. And then my last question is you mentioned the materials will be available um for the public to view. Will that be in more than one language? I believe the uh advertisement materials will be and the document will be made available on our website. Um as far as translation cap capabilities once it's published on the website, we'd have to verify but the advertisement materials will be made available in English and Spanish. Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation. I um just had one question because you had talked about um the importance of getting community feedback. Um in in the past, have we um been successful in getting feedback from the community and and how have we done that? Uh clarifying question as it relates to the hazard mitigation updates or just in general?

Just in general. And then I guess h how it would relate to this because I know a lot of times we get community feedback when um community when the community members are upset with something but if we in in terms of this project how how are we planning to to get community feedback from from our community members

right so uh general broadstrokes um uh outreach would include like our posting on our website advertising uh where and available on our city uh city hall um making those announcements um posted on our social media pages. Um and then there's also uh future uh planned and previous uh endeavors to go out uh to the community where they are and advertise the uh survey at this point, but later on the draft plans. Um I believe Nick, you can comment on one endeavor that we did.

Yes. So So we've done one so far. So we uh we look for opportunities where there's events already happening, where there's community already. So it makes sense we we could just u passively uh get engagement uh through folks. So So I did attend a a school event um at that was hosted by the school district and we were invited to attend and we had a booth there and it was great. you know, some some people came up with u some some uh some some good questions and comments, took uh took forms with them and with those forms did have the survey uh QR code. So hopefully they did follow through and um provide surveys and and I'll say that it was a school event so we did have a a good amount of young people um uh strike up conversations and do the engagement which was h I was happy to see.

Thank you. All right. Um, last minute check for any questions or comments. All right. So, we're going to move on to any communications from staff or the commission.

If there's I'll go first. I do have uh one thing to report. I was requested to come back to the commission with information and updates regarding uh Barnes Park and how that that project is going. So that's a project that's being managed by public works department, but um uh so I did consult with them just to check in with them to see where they're at, what's the progress and and so forth. Um I do have some uh updates for you. Um they are actively monitoring the contractor's work there. Some parts have started, some parts are yet to begin, but some parts that are started, they've uh involve um uh the soccer field and um some of the other like dog park areas. So, those projects have started. So, they're doing quality control inspections and they're going back and forth with their contractor to make sure that um the finished product is is something that the city's going to be happy with. So that's where those parts of the park are. Uh the sound wall uh that's a a CALR sound wall is uh it's under construction now and they're expecting completion sometime in June. So that's that's moving forward, making progress. And uh football court football court that will be um it it will be out to bid soon. So that one's that one's a little bit in the future. But uh so those are the the big uh guess the the highle announcements I could I could provide regarding Barnes Park at this time. Um any communications from the commissioners? Seeing none, I will take a motion to adjourn tonight's meeting.

I've been told I can just adjourn it. Um, so thank you all for attending tonight's meeting. We are adjourned at 7:26