Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening. Thank you, everybody. This is the regular session of the City of Beaumont Planning Commission for May 27th, 2026. Call the meeting to order at 6.01 p.m. Can I get a roll call, please?

Commissioner Southern?

Here.

Commissioner Cooley?

Here.

Commissioner Koblen?

Here.

Vice Chair Cueva?

Present.

Chairman Smith?

Here. Nobody's absent, so we'll just jump ahead to the Pledge of Allegiance. Any adjustments to the agenda tonight?

No adjustments.

Any conflicts of interest to disclose? Hearing none, I will move to item B, public comment period for items not on the agenda. Any one person may address the committee on any matter not on this agenda. If you wish to speak, please fill out a public comment form provided at the back table and give it to the committee chair or secretary. There is a three-minute limit on public comments. There will be no sharing or passing of time to another person. State law prohibits the committee from discussing or taking actions brought up by your comments. Do we have any requests to speak tonight?

I have no written requests. Andre, do we have any callers on the line? Sorry, give me just a minute. Okay.

Moving on to item C, or action items. Item C1 is the approval of the minutes. Do we have any comments? Or if not, we'll entertain a motion.

Move to approve.

Second.

All right.

We have a motion and a second. Roll call, please.

Commissioner Southard?

Yes.

Commissioner Cooley?

Yes.

Commissioner Copeland?

Yes.

Vice Chair Cueva?

Yes.

Chairman Smith?

Yes. Item number C2 is a workshop for the 2026 Beaumont sustainability plan and recommendation to City Council staff report, please Hi, good evening chair vice chair and members of the Planning Commission.

I would like to introduce Sammy Taylor with Alta planning and design She'll be presenting the sustainability plan today Sammy and her team have been working in collaboration with city staff in the development of this plan So I'll turn it over to her to to present this the plan. I

Thanks, Melody. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Sammy Taylor, and I'm an associate with Raymond Associates. We're the consultant team who has been leading the development. Do I need to turn this on? Okay. Sorry.

There we go.

Okay. Who's been deleted leading the development of the city's sustainability plan in collaboration with staff. And I'm excited to share the draft plan with you all tonight. So this is briefly what we'll cover tonight. We'll overview what the plan is that the greenhouse gas emissions in Beaumont, natural hazards in Beaumont, and then the community sustainability and resilience measures that address these issues. So jumping right in. The city of Beaumont is committed to providing a more livable, fair, and economically vibrant community. These three components, the environment, people, and the economy, make up the concept of sustainability. Sustainability is the ability to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. In Beaumont, this means creating a thriving, healthy, diverse, and resilient community for this and future generations. So some of the benefits of community sustainability include cost savings for families, improved health outcomes due to less air pollution and more active lifestyles, less traffic congestion and safer streets for biking and walking, and more trees and increased access to nature resulting from healthier ecosystems and cleaner watersheds. Additionally, while not shown on this slide, another important benefit of sustainability is improved community resilience to climate hazards and natural disasters. So the Beaumont Sustainability Plan updates the 2015 plan with new implementation-focused actions that advance environmental sustainability specifically. It is a short-range plan with a timeline of about five to 10 years that builds on Beaumont's existing plans and policies, aligns with recent state laws, and charts a sustainable path forward to continue implementation as resources and capacity become available. So in addition to the full plan, we created some collateral materials, including a comprehensive standalone executive summary that is more accessible and distills the plan into its most important parts. Additionally, for those who want to dive deeper on the topics included in the plan, we developed focused area fact sheets that detail the measures within each section that enhance community sustainability and resiliency. And these are all available on the website at the link that's included in the presentation and I think the staff report as well. So the plan development process has followed this sequence generally. We started with background technical analysis to understand the underlying conditions in Beaumont, including updating the city's greenhouse gas inventory and conducting a vulnerability assessment. I'll touch on those results a little bit later in this presentation. The technical analysis created the foundation to develop lists of strategies that reflect the city's unique characteristics, priorities, and needs. The second step, measure development, was an iterative process that include collaboration with staff, PARTNER AGENCIES AND INCORPORATES FEEDBACK FROM THE COMMUNITY. FINALLY, WE WROTE THE PLAN AND IT HAS BEEN RELEASED FOR PUBLIC COMMENT AND WILL GO THROUGH THE FINAL ADOPTION PROCESS. MOST IMPORTANTLY, YOU CAN SEE AT THE BOTTOM THAT COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT HAS BEEN A THROUGHLINE THROUGHOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THIS PROJECT. So like I mentioned, the community input has been incorporated throughout each step. We utilized different methods to engage different populations within the city, including conducting two rounds of focus groups with stakeholders, including representatives of the business community, residents, youth, seniors, and cyclists. We gathered feedback on measures via an online community survey and attended Beaumont Nights a couple of weeks ago. And finally, the draft plan is now out for public review and comment. So we received a lot of different comments from stakeholders throughout the process. This is a small collection of what we heard, but mainly there is support for creating a more livable community that's resilient to natural hazards, has clean air, and safe access to walking and biking, and more dependable utilities. To be sure, the community did express concern over the cost to themselves and the city of implementing sustainable lifestyle changes, but all of these comments helped us draft measure language and prioritize our actions within the plan. So next I'll explain some of the results from our foundational technical analysis, including where Beaumont's greenhouse gas emissions come from. Understanding where climate emissions come from helped us and the city to focus our efforts on areas where meaningful actions could be taken to improve the environment. And these technical analysis analyses informed measure development. So total community-wide emissions in 2022 were around 376,700 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. And we used 2022 because it was the most recent year for which we had complete data at the time of the analysis. On-road transportation, which includes driving cars and trucks on our roads, was the largest contributor to emissions, accounting for 63%, followed by residential and non-residential energy use, which includes both electricity and natural gas, which accounted for 28% of emissions. And this distribution or profile aligns with many cities across California and is typical to what we see. And it shows us where the largest opportunities to reduce emissions throughout the community lie. So although total emissions compared to 2018, which was the city's last inventory, increased by 11%, the breakdown by sector remained consistent. And per capita and per service population, so the total number of jobs and people in the city, emissions decreased by 6% as compared to 2018. So that suggests that emissions are not increasing at the same rate as growth happening within the city. So moving on to natural hazards, Beaumont currently faces a range of natural hazards such as extreme heat, wildfire, flooding, and severe weather. Most of the community feedback that we received related to experiencing these different natural hazards. So in terms of heat, we're expecting more extreme heat days and warm nights and hotter average maximum temperatures in the future. In terms of precipitation, we're not expecting much change in total precipitation. However, there will be more variability and extreme events expected. And the next two are kind of related, flooding and drought. Flooding may become more frequent and or extreme, and drought may become longer and more intense. And then finally, wildfire, which we're all unfortunately already familiar with. We're expecting to see more area burned, wildfires that burn more intensely, and increased impacts from wildfire smoke. So these hazards have impact not only on the environment but on our community. Children, older adults, low-income households, and renters face the greatest risks and have fewer resources to recover. Additionally, buildings and infrastructure can be damaged, leading to disruptions in daily life and business activity. And furthermore, continued environmental stress on our natural systems can reduce their ability to function and recover after a disaster. So like I mentioned, all of that background analysis helped to inform the measure development phase and the measures that are included within the plan. Oops. There we go. So the plan contains 37 community sustainability measures focused on building energy, transportation and land use, solid waste, water and ecosystems, and community accountability and activation. By taking steps to support sustainable development, we can lower energy use in our homes and businesses, make it easier to travel by different modes, reduce waste, and protect natural resources. The measures included in the sustainability plan were selected based on their benefits to the community, local priorities, staff capacity, alignment with state goals and legislation, and the availability of resources for implementation. So each of the subcategories is listed under the sectors of measures on these screens. So in terms of community resilience, the city developed a suite of 21 community resilience measures to increase the resilience of residents, natural resources, critical facilities and infrastructure and services, infrastructure and services from the impacts of climate change and natural hazards. The actions in the plan focus on preparing for emergencies, maintaining essential services and supporting quick recovery when disruption does occur. WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO RESIDENTS WHO MAY NEED ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE. THE BENEFITS OF THESE MEASURES CONTAINING THE COMMUNITY RESILIENCE SECTION INCLUDE IMPROVED AIR QUALITY, LOWER RISK FOR PROPERTY DAMAGE, IMPROVED HABITAT QUALITY AND JOB CREATION AS WELL AS STRENGTHENED INFRASTRUCTURE, EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEMS AND COMMUNITY READINESS WHICH CAN ALL IMPROVE PUBLIC SAFETY, REDUCE DAMAGE AND DOWNTIME AND SUPPORT LONG-TERM STABILITY FOR RESIDENTS, BUSINESSES AND CITY OPERATIONS. So based on that, today we're asking you to discuss and ask us questions and ultimately to recommend to the city council that they adopt the 2026 Beaumont Sustainability Plan. So thank you so much for your time and consideration tonight.

Thank you. I can poll the commission real quick. I'd be kind of interested to kind of run through some of the measures. Would you guys be interested in hearing what those are kind of on an individual basis? If you're able to pull that up.

All right.

So I have snapshots of all of them included in the plan or on the presentation, so we can run through by sector. If you have particular questions, maybe we can focus on those, however you want to go through it. I can also just kind of give you an overview of what each of these measures does.

I think kind of an overview as we're looking through the specific measures on here would be sufficient.

Sure. So the buildings and energy, and if you remember the pie chart of greenhouse gas emissions that I told you, energy use and transportation were our largest sectors. So we really focused most of our actions in addition to the community resilience. section on those two areas. So first we're looking at three different types of measure subcategories within buildings and energy. The first is alternative and carbon-free energy solutions. So this focuses on our energy source and supply. So making sure that's as clean as it can be within reason as we move forward. And then we look at modifications to new construction and existing buildings. And the goals of the actions that fall under these subsections are to INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF OUR BUILDINGS WHICH LEADS TO COST SAVINGS OVER TIME. WE'RE ALSO LOOKING AT ALL THESE MEASURES HAVE AN EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT AS WELL SO WE'RE LOOKING AT PROVIDING RESOURCES TO THE COMMUNITY FOR THEM TO MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT UPGRADING THEIR BUILDINGS BOTH HOMES, BUSINESSES TO MAKE THEM MORE EFFICIENT AND MORE RESILIENT TO OUR CHANGING CLIMATE.

I know, personally speaking, I know one of the things that was high impact for my home is when we got a variable speed air conditioning unit. It cut energy use considerably. Is there some way to, we're looking at this as to encourage that through building code?

Stephen Jones, Community Development Director. I would say we could. I think that's a good opportunity for us to look at when the next title obviously is updated. We just did one now. So beyond state requirements, that's a good opportunity for us to look at it in the next, I think it's two years, every couple of years. And it wouldn't necessarily be across the board. I think we could put in certain valuations or triggers or things that would require us or that would compel property owners to do that at the time they do improvements or new construction. And there's also the opportunity for community input. So, yeah, we could definitely look at that and put that in an update.

You know, items like that, I mean, they're pricier up front. Yeah, for sure. But, you know, it's made a significant difference on... my power bill that I've seen over the last year and a half or so. So the enforceability on a lot of this stuff would be through updates in municipal code, building code, conditions of approval, but we don't really have necessarily a funding mechanism to assist homeowners with being able to make upgrades or commercial business operators being able to upgrade their buildings, correct?

Right, not at this time. That's why I was thinking we would definitely bring it back to you, obviously, because we're going to update. When we do update Title 15, it's a recommendation of approval, and that's the opportunity for the public to input on what triggers we would propose or what valuations, for example, we would propose. So at this time, no significant grants unless, Sammy, you know of something we could apply for.

Yeah, and so I'll preface, these are kind of all the measures. What we heard from the community and what we kind of have heard from staff and the direction we've gotten is to take this in a voluntary kind of direction. So the plan includes looking at and exploring reach codes, for example, which would be the mechanism to include the variable speed air conditioners. But we're still kind of in the exploratory phase, and the next time to do that would be the next code cycle coming up in 2028. So all that would need to all of the measures in this if they would be developing a new policy or a new program Which a lot of them are aiming to do would require their kind of own set of community engagement their own set of You know policy development and ordinance development to include But that being said there are in our existing building measures One of our measures is to put a website together that has all the resources out there that are available to both business owners and homeowners to incentivize efficiency upgrades throughout their buildings. So the utilities provide a lot of those incentives, and so we'd be piggybacking off the existing programs that are already out there.

That is a challenge to try to navigate what is available and what isn't, and it can be frustrating for homeowners to try to have to go through so many different sources, so that'd be helpful. Any other questions on the building components or the building mitigations? No? Let's jump on to the next.

I have a question. If you can go back to your three circles there. Well, this one's fine right now. I do not understand. Let me, oh, okay. I guess I'm looking at the wrong thing, the chart that you had up before this. A couple of issues that I have. Number one is it's a catchphrase right now. And I've been in multiple meetings, multiple presentations. And I was in a meeting with all the fire chiefs locally. the county, and the state. And we keep hearing these things about wildfires. Their comment is, it's not going to happen here. We do not have the environmental winds, the other, to be a substantial risk of wildfire. But we're going crazy anticipating it. And they all agree that the State studies that have been done don't take into account any of the mitigations that have been done by the various property developers, the HOAs in the area, and they don't take into account any of the environmental factors here. And yet I see that as being a major issue, and I'm wondering how you came up with this in your study as showing it as being a problem specific to Beaumont, where the fire people are saying it is not.

Sure. So we rely on state-provided data. So we look at different data sources provided by the state to develop our vulnerability assessment, which is an attachment to the draft sustainability plan. So if you want all the information about our methodology and our findings, it's in that attachment. But essentially, we look at several different data sources, including CalADAPT, as well as the new wildfire hazard severity zone maps that just came out last year, two years ago. And so you're right. Those don't take into consideration the hyperlocal mitigation actions taken by various HOAs or singular property owners, but we're looking at trends. So over time, and we're looking at, you know, a 50-year horizon, mid-century to end of century, so quite a long period, and over that time we're expecting these trends to increase. So tomorrow we might not be seeing this, but the data says that within 50 to 100 years we will be seeing more significant wildfire activity within this area.

But all the information out there is saying is that data is defective. It's wrong. It's not developed deeply enough. And did your study look at those factors or are they just accepting what's out there?

So that's a great question. We do use the best available data and based on what we were looking at and we did of course have conversations with Riverside County Fire and CAL FIRE in reviewing the measures in this plan and they did provide comment and they did agree and we did you know make some changes based on their input but they were consultant in the development of the wildfire specific measures.

The other question I have if we go back there's to that the chart of what to do. Okay. A little further down, and you've got, there was a reference of...

The measures chart.

Yeah, the measures chart. Thank you. Okay. All right. I do not understand how and why we would think that we can promote existing local utility state and federal incentives and assistance programs for solar PV and battery installation on private property. How are we going to do that? We don't have the authority to do that. Pie in the sky. We are not going to be able to make the utility companies change their rates.

No. So we're promoting any of the incentives. So any tax rebates that might still exist, any of the incentives that utilities are currently offering related to the installation of solar. No, we have no control over utility rates. We know that the landscape for solar has certainly changed over the last year and a half, which makes it more less expensive. makes the return on investment a lot longer than it used to be. But it's still something that we would like to see to make sure that we're promoting that cleanest source of energy. So we decided to include it in the plan informationally so people know that they still exist and can do that and that there are resources out there to help them. But no, we have no authority to require at this point the utility change any of their incentives or financing structures. And at this time, we're not mandating a solar reach code, for example, that would require the installation of solar on new construction or existing buildings. Does that answer your question?

answer to my question, but it leaves the concerns that I think that the plan is flawed. It's assuming that things are going to happen, that there's no factual data that it will happen. And, in fact, Cal Fire and Riverside County says that those maps are flawed. They don't reflect true situations. And we're talking about incentives that we can't drive. Why would we be relying on something that we have no control over? We're talking about incentives to electrify, to put in solar. There aren't any, and we have no ability to impact that.

This would be... promotion of incentives that exist outside the city. Correct. Not incentives that the city is providing.

Correct. Until or if resources were to come available and they wanted to pursue something like that, but at this time there is no, that is not included as part of this plan.

So if there are no incentives that are being offered to promote those things, then that goal can't, you know, the goal would be to promote something that it

There are SCEs.

That does exist, and then if there's nothing there, then we just, it's kind of a moot point at that point, right?

There are still opportunities out there that, you know, the private market will facilitate where they're fostering conversion. So there are things we could still... promote, I think that this is a part of your larger sort of way to update our website, for example, with those opportunities. It may be a short list. Maybe it's going to be really short, but it's still a list that we can provide to say, that's out there. Whether it's a Tesla wall or whatever it is, here's how you can access it. And so it goes a long way for regionally, whether it's the private market or a private individual finding those resources and making that connection.

So the burden on the city and the responsibility for the city to meet these goals would just be to find the information and make it readily and publicly available.

Purveyor of information at that point, and it's directly related to an energy goal. Does that make sense?

Yeah, I think that's a great characterization. Thanks, Steven.

Do you want to jump to the next section?

Sure, so transportation and land use, again, this has to do with reducing emissions and providing safer, more accessible roadways and paths to make multimodal transit more accessible within the city. So there's three different sections here. Active transportation focuses on getting people out of their cars to walk or bike as their main mode of transit. Vehicle electrification, again, looks at Enhancing or increasing or speeding up the transition to electric vehicles versus internal combustion engine vehicles. And then VMT reduction or vehicle miles traveled reduction looks at kind of more innovative policy solutions, including TDM or transportation demand management programs. to reduce our vehicle miles traveled. And I'll say that a lot of these measures included in this echo what was just adopted in the general plan a couple of years ago. So it really kind of tries to elevate the most important measures of that related to VMT reduction and again focuses them here in the sustainability plan.

So this is where I have a question, please.

So if you go back to your pie graph, and I understand everything you're doing. I like what you're doing. The problem that I'm having is 63% of that is on-road transportation. Of that 63%, what is attributable to the residents of Beaumont versus attributable to the transportation corridors, which are the 60 and the 10 freeway that traverse our city?

That's a great question. So how we got to the 63% of total emissions number is we look at an origin destination methodology. So we look at vehicle trips that either start or end or are fully contained within the city. So any pass-through traffic on the 10 or the 60 is not included in this calculation. So this is purely trips that either start or end or both within Beaumont itself. But I think what you're getting at is that transportation is a regional issue. It is not something that is easily solved by a city as small as Beaumont. And so one of the things that we rely on here is our kind of regional partners as well as the things that we can do really to get those shorter trips transitioned from a vehicle to a different mode like bike transit or walking.

And looking at our transit system that we have, you know, My children took advantage of it when they went to school. So I know it exists, but it seemed like it was fairly limited. Are we looking at asking the city to work with their partners to extend that? Or are we looking at areas where they could go to a more regional transportation hub to alleviate, let's say, a trip to Crafton Hills College?

SO I THINK THE SHORT ANSWER IS BOTH. WE HEARD THAT AS WELL A LOT ESPECIALLY FROM OUR YOUTH COMMISSION IS THAT TRANSIT OFFERED BY BOWMAN TRANSIT IS LIMITED SO WE'RE RELYING ON THE CITY'S EXISTING PLANS THAT ARE RELATED TO THE SHORT-RANGE TRANSIT PLAN AS WELL AS THE EV BUS ROLLOUT PLAN TO HELP ADDRESS SOME OF THOSE ISSUES. SO I THINK IN HERE WHAT WE'RE REALLY LOOKING AT IS HOW TO Improve Beaumont transit services, but again, we're still in that exploratory phase So there would need to be lots of stuff done before we got to you know Committing to line extensions or service improvements or enhancements throughout the system So there needs to be a full needs assessment all of that and so that's built into one of our measures in the VMT reduction section and then the last one I have is I understand that I understand the movement to electric vehicles

Did you do an analysis on the availability of charging stations within the city to accommodate those vehicles? Are you saying? For power. So. Where they could charge, let's say if they're not necessarily in at their home, and I would say that's your primary source, but as a secondary source when they're out and about, do we have the sufficient charging stations to take on that additional service need?

Again, no, but a measure in the plan is to explore and figure out where those additional charges need to be cited in order to support that transition. So that is included in the plan.

So is this something that we're going to ask commercial developers to take a larger increase of putting in more stations?

AT THIS TIME THAT IS NOT WHAT WE'VE CONSIDERED IN THE PLAN SO THAT WOULD BE UP TO WHAT'S REQUIRED BY THE BUILDING CODE AT THE MOMENT. BUT AGAIN AS I MENTIONED WE'RE STILL IN THIS EXPLORATORY PHASE AND NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHERE AND WHAT KIND OF CHARGES NEED TO BE INSTALLED TO SUPPORT THAT TRANSITION. IN TERMS OF ELECTIVE VEHICLES Provide the infrastructure or incentivize providing that infrastructure to support that transition, but they can't mandate that people go out and buy an electric car So again, we're looking more. How can the city support infrastructure upgrades that allow for that transition to occur?

All right. Thank you.

So I have a question incentivize People to go more electric, right? How do we do that? we go out and have the city go out and then look for charging station companies to build more here and we then tell people, use your golf carts on the street because they're street legal and they're electric, but where's the incentive? Does the city come up with

I think that's where the policy identifies that we need to work on creating the plan on, like any of these, I think any of these are a good idea, but until we have a policy that's adopted on where they go, how they go, how we separate traffic safely, I think the city's responsibility would be to develop the plan and the framework that would allow for people to feel comfortable to buy the vehicles and then utilize them throughout the rest of the community.

I'll give you an example. I have an electric vehicle. I can charge it at two locations in the city. And I pay extra for it. Unless I have a Tesla, and then I go to In-N-Out, because they made a deal with Tesla for charging stations. But I'm not aware that the city gave In-N-Out any incentives to have charging stations there with Tesla. It seems to me that we're putting the cart before the horse. Let's see if there's any, try to show that there's a need for those companies to have more charging stations, and then we can go into the idea of where we want to put them.

I think that's where we're talking about these reach goals. I think that's kind of, I'm kind of starting to kind of come along with a lot of this stuff here is that You know, with the next building code update, because it's never made sense to me if peak electricity production is at 10 to 2 in the morning and demand is lower, right? You know, that's what we have in all the excess. Why aren't we charging people's cars at their place of employment where their mobile batteries are there? So maybe that's something that we have to look at with the next building code update is, you know, yeah, we need more electric charging infrastructure at places of work or at schools or, you know, where people are generally parking their cars for long periods of time. And that upgrade will be in 28?

Yes, for the building code, and you're right, Chair, it's about the framework. We've already identified in the zoning code where there's, I would say, less scrutiny on when a reduction in parking or required parking is requested, especially where there are certain energy projects that are going to benefit not only the development but the city as a whole. So now you could, in and out could, or someone could say, I need a reduction in parking, and I'm planning to put in some electric vehicle charging stations. And that would be a finding for staff to either approve or recommend to the Planning Commission that we approve a reduction in a certain number of parking. I think it's up to 50% for commercial non-residential and up to 15% for residential parking standards where there are energy products that are proposed and so the framework is already starting to be created and one of the things staff commented on with with the consultant with sammy was that we were more comfortable with sort of memorializing the things the city's already doing and and know that we can do so that we weren't encumbering the city with either financial obligations or just high you know, pie in the sky type of thing. So the information that's going to be available based on these mitigation or on these measures, the zoning code already identifies ways to reduce parking for charging stations and affordable housing in that mix as well when you talk about the reduction in parking. And so developers are incentivized that way. to comply. And these would be memorialized in sort of a framework policy way where they're really sort of things we're already doing. Just to start.

So a lot of these measures, it's going to result in future actions and discussions that are going to be taken by the commission and the council and the community.

Correct. Either project by project or in a more macro way. Go ahead.

So just as we're stating within a lot of staff reports now, here's the goals that we're meeting within the general plan. They could also say, and here's how we're implementing these goals that were outlined as part of the sustainability plan.

Right. I did want to add one thing specifically to your plan on pushing for more E.V., buses, for local transportation. I think it's a great idea. I think it cannot be overstated.

To me, one of the things on the transportation and land use that should probably be a focus, and I've mentioned this before as we start working towards active transportation, is the impediment of getting across the freeway. Everywhere we have is an intersection, and that's a real deterrent, I think, to a lot of the alternative vehicles as the intersections between designed for higher and higher capacity and throughput of adding these kind of things on here. So looking and trying to evaluate some alternative means to cross over the barriers that are the railroad and the freeways, you know, I think would be a good standalone coal.

I want to make sure I capture everything so that we can reflect it well in our, in the next version of the plan.

Any other comments on transportation and land use?

Yeah, just one on the Safe Routes to School mention there. Schools comes up a lot in this report. So I'm just curious, was there any coordination with the school district at all in the preparation of this report? Is that something that would happen after as we're working out solutions to some of these issues?

So that would happen as a next step. The school district is its own kind of special district external to the city. So that coordination would happen. after this to then create the next steps moving forward to implement.

All right. Let's take a look at solid waste.

So this one is relatively simple compared to the others. It's mainly focusing on implementing SB1383, which is the organics diversion collection and repurposing law. So we're continuing to support the implementation of that effort and doing that through robust public engagement, education, and technical assistance, primarily focused on renters and commercial businesses who seem to have the most challenges with that. And then we take this one a step further and look at what we call our consumptive based emissions, which we don't really go into into the plan, but that's more of like our decision making and our consuming of goods and services. And so this final measure here looks at encouraging behavior change around our purchasing practices. So looking at both within the city as well as providing educational materials to the community to reduce consumption.

Yep, questions on solid waste?

I can confirm we have a blue bin back here, so we're halfway there.

We'll jump to water and ecosystems then.

So water and ecosystems, this looks at mainly water conservation, so reducing our water use. And then ecosystems looks at developing a parks master plan to continue to... Address any deficiencies in in park maintenance and existing facilities and then developing an urban forest master plan So again, these are all next steps next efforts That would expand the urban port forest and help to preserve our landscapes And so again, these are relying on partnerships with Beaumont Cherry Valley parks district to achieve these these strategies. I

I'd like to make a comment under water conservation. From personal experience, do away with the mandate for tankless water heaters. We live in a desert. And if your home was built after mid-2018, you're required to have a tankless water heater in this area. I don't know about the rest of the state. When you live in a desert and you have to run literally gallons and gallons and gallons per time you open up the faucet to get hot water, and those gallons and gallons are going down the drain. And when you add that to literally tens of thousands of homes just in Beaumont, The tremendous waste of water is there. So I'm all for the program, but I would say look into the possibility of getting exemptions for that. If not, not totally. I know it saves natural gas, but it wastes water.

So just my two cents.

I would echo that. I've had the same experience with our tankless water heater. Any other questions on water conservation?

Is there any move on the city's behalf, and I apologize for not knowing this, to go to reclaim water for landscape areas?

I know we are requiring new developments. I'm not certain whether that's a code requirement at this point, but it is something that we typically condition on new developments.

For larger public landscaping, not on lot, private lot, like residential, correct?

I'd have to get back to you on that. I'm not certain.

Okay, so you're not running a dual system? No.

Okay. Is that available now? I've heard for 10 years that that's going to happen any day, but we don't have it available. I know the community I live in has the piping, but there's no supply from the city or the water district of that water. And I keep hearing it's going to happen tomorrow, but it's been 10 years.

Yeah, because we do have a separate Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District that typically runs through them. So, you know, I can't speak to that at this point.

Thank you. Yep.

As far as the dual system, it's been my experience that there's not enough water generated to effectively run that dual system citywide, but you can generally cover municipal facilities, medians, parks, golf courses, so on and so forth. I know EMWD is close to 100% on use of their recycled water, and they don't do any private homeowner type stuff. Questions? Okay. Let's go to the last one, accountability and activation.

So this section here focus area is more about how we will monitor the implementation of the plan and how we'll coordinate with other regional partners and local agencies for its implementation as well as how we educate and activate the community around becoming more sustainable.

A question for staff at this point. There's a lot of upcoming work for you guys and a lot of monitoring and engagement type work. Is this the level of effort that's required for this? You guys are comfortable being able to deliver on these? Yes. Any other questions at this point? So this is a workshop item, so are there any requests to speak on this matter?

I have no written requests. Andrea, do we have any callers on the line?

No callers.

Okay. So amongst the commission here, any final questions, discussion? I do appreciate being able to go through the points. I think there was some good information that came out of that. Good discussion there. Anything else before... We look for a motion. Okay. So the action that's being requested today would be a recommendation to City Council. Is that what this is? A resolution of the Planning Commission recommending that the City Council of the City of Beaumont adopt the 2026 Beaumont Sustainability Plan as an update to the 2015 Climate Action Plan And an EIR addendum to the 2040 general plan program EIR. So, you know, if it's out for public comment now, you know, so this would be just a part of the recommendation there. They would look at the final document, incorporate ours, incorporate any of the public comments that are still out there. As such, correct?

Correct. So the public comment is still open. So anyone, you know, listening in the public can still comment on the plan all the way up to city council. And then we would incorporate the feedback that we received here today into the document as well.

Okay.

So this plan will not be coming back to us for further review. Is the commission comfortable making the recommendation

I was going to say, simplistically, I'll say, so moved.

Okay. So moved. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Okay. Take a roll call, please.

Commissioner Southard?

Yes.

Commissioner Cooley?

No.

Commissioner Copeland?

Yes.

Vice Chair Cueva?

Yes.

Chairman Smith?

Yes. All right. And thank you for putting up with us tonight. I appreciate the efforts.

Thank you so much for your time.

All right, moving on to item C3. It's public hearing to consider an approval of a plot plan amendment, plot plan 2024-0052, and a finding of consistency with the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines under sections 15162, 15163, and 15168. I'll take a staff report, please.

Hi, good evening, Chair, Vice Chair, and members of the Planning Commission. Melody Archiga, Senior Planner. I will be presenting the item today. So before jumping into the details of the project, the application for a plot plan amendment was received in September of 2024. And subsequently, the DRC reviews were held in October 2024, February and May of 2025. The applicant is requesting an amendment of a previously approved plot plan to construct a standalone warehouse building. Pursuant to the Beaumont Municipal Code, applications for amendments require an application be filed with the planning department. The project site is located between State Route 60 and Prosperity Way as shown on the screen. There are two existing buildings on the neighboring parcels referenced as Wolverine to the east and Amazon to the south. These two buildings are also within the Rolling Hills Ranch specific plan like the proposed project. And then just a brief background, the previously approved plot plan was for an approximately 600,776 or 676,000 square feet addition. The applicant is now proposing a standalone building that is approximately 200,000 square feet smaller than the previously approved plot plan. The project was deemed complete prior to the effective date of the zoning code update. As a result, the project was analyzed under the previous zoning code as discussed in the staff report. The project is within the Rolling Hills Ranch specific plan and has a land use designation of industrial. And then for reference, the site plan on the screen shows the previously approved plot plan, which was, as I mentioned earlier, for an addition. The applicant is now proposing, as noted earlier, a standalone building. The site plan shows the location of the building, which is highlighted in yellow, and then the surrounding existing development. So here's just a closer look at the site plan. Within the building, there will be three offices, which are circled in red, two full access driveways along Prosperity Way, And then a 26 foot drive aisle for emergency vehicles. They're also providing 26 foot drive aisles within the parking areas, which are at three locations for standard vehicle parking stalls. And then they have three areas for trailer and tractor parking. Additionally, they are provided three gated entrances with guard houses which are highlighted in yellow and then they're providing tubular steel fencing which is highlighted in red. The applicant is providing parking consistent with the specific plan. The requirement for this project is approximately 192 parking stalls and the applicant is exceeding this requirement by providing 196. The applicant is also providing 241 trailer parking stalls and 41 tractor trailer parking stalls. The building will be constructed of concrete tilt up. The building features articulation at the office areas with accent colors and joint lines throughout the building and window canopies. The design is consistent with neighboring buildings within the specific plan and is also consistent with the design guidelines that are noted in the specific plan. The landscaping is also consistent with shading, screening, and planter size requirements required by Chapter 17.06 of the previous municipal code. A final landscape plan will be required prior to building permit issuance as noted in the conditions of approval. So just a brief discussion on the specific plan. The specific plan does allow for up to 3 million square feet of warehouse buildings within its boundaries. The new proposed standalone building will bring the specific plan to about 1.8 million square feet, which is well under the 3 million square feet that's allowed within the plan. The proposed building is a spec building. Future tenants would need to be consistent with the land use permitted within the specific plan. The project does not propose to expand beyond the boundaries of the specific plan and is consistent with the plan. With the specific plan, was it an EIR addendum that was approved? A finding of consistency is being requested pursuant to sections 15162, 15163, and 15168 of the CEQA guidelines. A memorandum analyzing this finding of consistency was prepared and is included as an attachment to the staff report. With this, staff recommends that the Planning Commission hold a public hearing and approve plot plan 2024-0052 subject to the conditions of approval and a finding of consistency of the plot plan amendment with the Rolling Hills Ranch specific plan and its ER addendum number one. and adopt by title only a resolution of the Planning Commission of the City of Beaumont approving plot plan amendment 2024-0052 and finding consistency with the California Environmental Quality Act guidelines for subsequent environmental review. and direct staff to prepare a notice of determination for the applicant to file with the Riverside County Clerk Recorder. This concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions, and the applicant is also present here today.

Thank you. Do we have any questions for staff at this point? So the CEQA determinations, the sections that are referenced in there, the brunt of it. Essentially that the initial CEQA document studied a land use that was more intense. They are proposing something that is less intense, which would have a lesser impact, and then therefore additional environmental study is not required, correct?

Correct. So the ER addendum and previous CEQA documentation for this project analyzed up to 3 million square feet of warehouse building area. Now they're at about 1.8 with this new proposal. And it didn't trigger any of the section 15162 findings or requirements for subsequent review. So there was a memo prepared analyzing each of those findings as well, which results in this finding of consistency. In order to document the determination, we'll also file a notice of determination if directed by the Planning Commission. Thank you.

You brought something up that I want to ask this question. So if you had an EIR on this, what was the transportation corridor or what did the transportation study say is the corridor for travel for this? Because it seems to be tucked up in the back if I'm understanding this correctly.

So as a corridor as it relates to how to access the freeway? Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think the traffic impact would have analyzed the 60 and how this property connects to the major arterial. So, yeah, you're right. It's tucked in the back, and I think the street is, what street is it, Jack Rabbit Trail? Potrero. Potrero. Yeah, so Potrero and the 60 would have been looked at in terms of a regional macro sort of level from Caltrans.

The recently adopted EIR.

The recently adopted earlier EIR. The addendum, again, didn't look at any traffic impacts because the original building and the 3 million square feet would have already addressed that. So we looked at public works. We look at the traffic for patrol and forth.

So we have a 2005, the project performed a 2005 TIA traffic impact analysis and then there was an additional traffic impact analysis in 2018. SO THE APPLICANT PROPOSED VERIFYING CONSISTENCY WITH THOSE TWO ANALYSES. SO PUBLIC WORKS REQUIRED INSTEAD OF ANOTHER TIA WE REQUIRED A TRIP GENERATION LETTER TO VALIDATE THE RESULTS OF THE PREVIOUSLY APPROVED TRAFFIC IMPACT ANALYSES AND IT WAS The trip generation letter did show a reduction in total vehicle trips, which makes sense because there's a reduced square footage.

Do you know that total vehicle trips, what was that going to be?

I don't know off the top of my head. Okay. So the specific plan would have been conditioned to mitigate for traffic based on the 2005 TAA, 2018 found that the mitigations were still acceptable as they were developed in 2005 and now we're looking today at traffic is less than what was anticipated in 2018. So the conditions and the off-site improvements that would have been required were still acceptable. Correct.

To put it real simply, we're talking about going from a larger number to a smaller number.

Yes. Agreed. But we're basing on transportation study that's eight years old, 2018, on the impact. Did I miss that?

So their last one would have been 2018. But as subsequent projects come in, they have to take into account everything that was approved prior and was always in the works as part of their analysis. So anything that would have showed up after that date has to assume that this project is constructed And they bake that into their analysis.

And the bulk of the traffic from this development will be on Potrero and forth, right? It won't be minimal on the freeway. And access to the freeway will be changed with a new on-ramp and off-ramp there.

And they'd be required to comply with the recently adopted truck routing network.

All right. Okay. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay.

All right, any other questions for staff? All right, so this item is a public hearing. We will open the public hearing at 6.59. Do we have any requests to speak?

I have no written requests, Andrea. Do we have any callers on the line? No callers.

Okay, with no public comments, are there any questions that the commission would have for the applicant? I do have one quick question, if someone's able to address that. Maybe just state your name for the record, please.

Sorry, this happened last time. Hi, I'm Donna Shin. I'm the owner representative developer on this project.

Thank you. Knowing that you may not be able to disclose a lot of information, do you have a tenant that already kind of has an LOI for this property, or is this project being built to SPAC?

We don't have any LOI at this time on this project. We're working on it, but we don't have anything.

We have suspects.

So the intended use on this would be warehousing, storage, logistics along those lines, correct?

Correct.

Okay.

That was my only question. Any other questions for the applicant? All right. Thank you. With that, then we will close the public hearing at 7.01. Any further discussion amongst the commission? If not, I would entertain a motion. The recommended actions for this motion would be to approve the plot plan and the conditions of approval and the finding of consistency with the plot plan amendment of the Rolling Hills specific plan, Rolling Hills Ranch specific plan, EIR, and then the number one. and then accept by title only a resolution to the Planning Commission of the City of Beaumont, approving plot plan amendment 2024-0052, and finding consistency with CEQA guidelines for subsequent environmental review and to direct staff to prepare a NOD for the applicant to file with the Riverside County Clerk Recorder.

I move that we accept as stated in the report. Okay.

I'll second. Motion and a second. We'll take a roll call, please.

Commissioner Southern?

Yes.

Commissioner Cooley?

Yes.

Commissioner Copeland?

Yes.

Vice Chair Cueva?

Yes.

Chairman Smith?

Yes. And the last date of approval for this item is Thursday, June 11th at 5 o'clock p.m. in this office.

All right. Thank you. Last item, or moving on, item D on the agenda is for staff comments. Do we have any comments for the commission at this time? No comments. All right. Keeps it easy. Any comments from the commission? All right. With that, we will adjourn our meeting. The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Beaumont Planning Commission is scheduled for Wednesday, June 10th at 6 p.m. Thank you.