Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

visible with liberty and justice for all. Pursuant to council administrative policy meeting rules and procedures section 5.2, comments by members of the public are generally limited to three minutes or less time if a larger number of speakers is anticipated or if approved by the chair. Speakers desiring answers to questions should direct them to the planning commission and if relevant, they may direct them to the appropriate staff member. Speakers can also follow up directly with staff during regular city business hours. If you are in person, please file a speaker's card with the administrative secretary on the form provided on the counter at the back of the chambers. If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand to speak. During this portion of the meeting, members of the public are permitted to speak on items that are not listed on the agenda. Public comments for scheduled agenda items should wait until that time. Please note the commission's actions are final unless an appeal is filed with the city clerk within 10 calendar days. April.

At this time we have no one in Zoom and no one here in the chambers that would like to speak in general public comment.

Thank you, April. Moving on to the consent calendar. I have a regular set of minutes from June 16th, 2026. Any discussion or do I have a motion? Make a motion to approve the minutes. Second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Right. Moving on to item E1, time extension for approved vesting tentative map VTSM 9597 and a design review applications DR22-005 for the Lone Tree Way subdivision and the staff report with Miguel Contreras.

Thank you, Chair. Good evening, Chair. Good evening, Commissioners, and good evening, members of the public. Y'all can turn us here to present TE 26-003, which is a time extension request for vesting tentative subdivision map 9597 and design review application 22-005. The project's location is located at 6590 slash 7650 Lone Tree Way. It's a 16.32 acre site with a land use of residential very low density and a zoning of R1-12. On June 11th, 2024, the city approved the vesting map as well as the design review and a associated mitigative negative declaration to create a 40 single family residential subdivision, which would include a 0.64 acre park and onsite and offsite improvements. WITH THE ORIGINAL APPROVAL, THE PROJECT WOULD EXPIRE JUNE 11, 2026. THE APPLICANT SUBMITTED A TIME EXTENSION LATE MAY OF 2026, WELL BEFORE THE EXPIRATION DATE. SINCE THE APPROVAL, THE APPLICANT HAS SUBMITTED IMPROVEMENT PLANS WITH OUR ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT NOVEMBER OF 2025. I believe at this point we're on our fourth round of submittal so the applicant and the city have actively been working towards getting these improvement plans approved. And most recently, the applicant has also submitted a master plotting plan with the building department that was on April of this year. Prior to that submittal, the applicant did have a meeting with the city, their architects, to go over some minor tweaks that they were doing to the architectural. but the applicant has been working with the city to get these projects approved and built. A request and recommendation. So the applicant in their request letter, they request a two year extension for both the map and the design review. However, the municipal code limits extensions for maps to only 12 months. DAV has spoken with the applicant and we both agreed that 12 months is appropriate since that's what the code requires. And it's also appropriate to keep the design review to 12 months extension as well in order to keep both the map and the design review coherent. So with that said, staff recommends that the Planning Commission adopt Resolution 26-017, approving a one-year extension for the tentative map, and approve or adopt Resolution 26-018, approving a one-year extension for the design review. That concludes staff's presentation. If you have any questions for staff, the applicant is here as well. She indicated that she doesn't have a presentation, but she's open to any questions.

Yeah, thank you, Miguel.

Before we move on, any questions of staff? Is one more year enough time to get to the next stage or to get where we need to be?

That's gonna be a question for the applicant. I would defer to the applicant to answer that.

Okay. Any other questions? Otherwise we can, okay. Let's see, does the applicant wanna address that? Thank you.

Good evening, Chair and members of the Commission. Jackie Ceno. I've worked with Miguel for the last few years and so Yes, absolutely. One year will be sufficient. We're already processing the grading and improvement plans. We just need a little extra time to get the remaining plans approved and finalized. So yes, that'll be fine. Okay, any other questions? Okay, thank you again.

Thank you. All right, we can move into public comment or public hearing, excuse me.

At this time, we have no speakers here in the audience to speak. We'll go ahead and go to Zoom. If you'd like to speak on this item, please raise your hand. We have no speakers in Zoom.

All right, I'll entertain a motion for closing public hearing. Make a motion to close public hearing.

Second.

All in favor? Aye. Right, discussion.

Commissioner Jones. Pretty straightforward. I mean, I think today's decision is really about just whether this is going to continue to move forward, which it is. So I'm comfortable supporting the one-year extension.

Ditto. I haven't seen any reason not to. Unless somebody wants to convince me otherwise.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Yeah, I did want to comment. The applicant has been very amicable to a number of changes. I know this project's been quite a while. I know you remember this one, too. So yeah, I'm very supportive of the time extension and following the municipal code, obviously, for a 12-month. Let's hope things move along. With that, I'll entertain a motion.

And this is, is this two separate motions that we're doing? Okay. I make a motion to adopt resolution number 26-017, approving the requested time extension, thus extending the expiration date of VTSM 9597 to June 11th, 2027. I second. All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. And then I'll make a motion to adopt Resolution 26-018, thus extending the expiration date of DR22-005 to June 11, 2027.

I'll second.

All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Thank you. Great. Moving on to business items. Item F1, a time extension for a previously approved design review application, DR22-012A1 for La Quinta Hawthorne Suites located at the southwest corner of Shady Willow Lane and Los Cielos Way, APN 019-910-012. Staff report from Sarah Eweiler.

Hi good evening, thank you chairperson brand good evening planning Commission members of the public before you tonight is a brief presentation for a time extension request associated with design review application Dr 22 dash 012. For a 69,060 square foot looking to Hawthorne suites hotel and associated site improvements. Okay, here is a location, just an aerial for you of the site just to refresh your memory. The hotel is proposed at the southwest corner of Shady Willow Lane and Los Cielos Way and on the east side of the streets of Brentwood. Again, just here is a site plan of some of the improvements just to refresh and the elevations as well. And then just getting into the background, The approved design review application was approved by the Planning Commission on June 4th, 2024, which included a two-year timeframe to begin construction, meaning the expiration date was June 4th, 2026. The applicant submitted engineering improvement plans as well as building permit plans for review in December of 2025. The comments were provided back to the applicant and these comments required changes to be made to the plans prior to the ability to issue any further approvals for the project. The applicant was not able to make the changes in finish the plan check process in order to break ground in order to activate the project prior to the expiration date of June 4th therefore the applicant is now requesting a time extension. THE APPLICANT'S WRITTEN TIME EXTENSION REQUEST OUTLINES SOME FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTED TO THE NEED FOR THE TIME EXTENSION. AS EXPLAINED IN THE STAFF REPORT, THE PROJECT EXPERIENCED SOME DELAYS DUE TO UNCERTAINTY OF THE ECONOMY AND THE NEED TO FIND A NEW CIVIL ENGINEER FOR THE PROJECT. DUE TO THE ISSUES, AT THIS TIME, STAFF RECOMMENDS ADOPTING RESOLUTION NUMBER 26-015, APPROVING AN 18-MONTH TIME EXTENSION FOR DESIGN REVIEW 22-012 AS PREVIOUSLY Conditioned and that concludes my presentation.

We do have the applicant here as well if needed Thank you, Sarah Okay Any questions of staff before we Seeing none with the arrow.

Yeah And it might be another question for the applicant But just want to confirm is 18 months feeling like this is gonna be a sufficient time to get what we need to get done. I

Yeah, so in talking with the applicant, the initial request was for around 15 months, but that was just an unusual kind of timeframe to put on a project. So just sort of giving them a couple months leeway, we recommended the 18 months. So I can defer to the applicant more if you have questions on further timing, but my understanding is that should be sufficient.

Thank you. Appreciate it. I have a question. Oh, sorry. So has the applicant been working with the city in terms of getting this project accomplished? It seemed like they made one thing I guess in June and that was it.

So they actually submitted their plans for building and engineering back in December of 2025 for plan check review and they had comments that were sent back to them. My understanding from the communications with the applicant is that the the engineering firm that they were working with is no longer in business. So they unfortunately had to, or are having to find a new one. So that's kind of a holdup at this point, but I can defer to Ray Patel if needed. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you. And then just, I've got the last item kind of in my mind still. VTSM in the BMC indicates that it's a 12-month extension for VTSMs only. Correct, yes. And so design reviews would be... Design reviews don't have that, yeah. Yeah, okay, fair enough. Okay, just wanted to make that clear.

Yeah, no problem, thank you.

Does the applicant want to make any comments? Not required, they're just... Oh, please come to the podium.

I'm going to stand on follow-up.

Great.

Good evening, Commission. Thank you for extending us this opportunity to express our circumstances regarding the project. Yes, we received comments at the end of January, which at the time, we were having trouble acquiring a new civil engineer. During the plan check process, the initial process, The civil engineer went out of business and is no longer taking new work or should I say extending old contracts for further review. So in the process, we were reviewing the opportunity to find a new civil engineer. But just to give a little, and we're just not able to proceed with the plan check process with them. So we are in the process of finding, I think, both a landscape and a civil engineer consultant to work with.

Just a quick question. So when you mentioned economic issues in your letter, was the economic issues due to the due to the landscaper and your civil engineer? Is that what you were talking about that you were concerned about?

So with regards to the economic issues, I can let the applicant further explain the economic issues.

Okay. Good evening, everybody. It's our privilege to be here in beautiful city of Brentwood, honestly talking. I'm from Lodi, not too far. And this award-winning engineering architect firm, which is NGA Architect from Lodi, you can Google them. They do outstanding job. And the two main comments we got is civil engineering. They need some... they want to do some more curb and gutter and all that more to be included. And when we took this comment, NGA notify me that they are out of business and they are just, we left dry and bone. It's hard to get the many companies getting out of business, including couple of builders and all that. And then landscaping, Same thing, it's been brought out and ever since we're struggling, my consulting Bill Johnson is arranging some meetings he's a former retired architect who used to design my hotels and all other things so he has a lot of relations so we we're in process of that and sarah can you bring that elevation we designed the hotel i don't i remember rod was there but i don't know other commission over there when you guys approved you were there sir no right you were there no you were there yeah and ron was there and i don't know sir about girl but uh we really appreciate and we desire they the nga did so amazing job to we're gonna make this property come out so beautiful So there were two main comments, and both were the same, both has a problem. Other than that, whatever they do in-house, they can nail it in one week, and so we are struggling with that. Second of all, everybody knows with our Fed chair, the interest supposed to go down, instead it went up, and again gonna go up. There is no way you can even get the bidding for the project. So maybe Lord has a reason to, work this out while we are doing this and everything will hopefully calm down in six months and going forward will be perfect timing for us to ground break and make you guys proud to give you best product, and my son, Alias Management is our company, my son manage, and I just became grandpa, by the way, just two weeks ago, so he cannot make it, and he just got award by IAG. IAG is like Candlewood Suites, I mean, not Candlewood, State Bridge, Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn. We got outstanding award in one of the hotel today, so he gonna make you proud, man, operating this hotel. amazing project, but we're begging you to extend our request. Other than that, we have no other reason. We are positive people and gonna bring positive impact in the city of Brantwood. Thank you.

Thank you. Oh, yes. Commissioner Johnson's question for you. I just wanted to know, listen, I want to see this happen, so I want to see it there. But you made a comment about economic issues, so I just wanted to understand what you were talking about.

So what I was, so let's say for example, if plan is perfect, right, we might have pulled the permit and we might have still might have proceed the groundbreaking, but I don't know what happened. Why is these two comments was mainly was landscaping and civil engineering where they want easement agreement and then some improvement which these guys has to do. I don't know nothing about that. So now we are struggling to hire somebody and mostly what happens is when somebody has leftover work in the middle of job, nobody, no firm want to touch it. That's the main challenge. So we are trying to work now. Economic wise, so the interest rate supposed to go down, right? so instead it went, it stayed stable, and now they're saying for sure it's gonna go up, so it's hard to get financing too. So we have paid off project, we invested six million, but now to get the construction loan, it might have become be difficult going forward, Meanwhile, we are gonna work on these two comments that Citi gave us, which is on those landscaping and civil part, which will make it happen, and we'll submit as soon as we can, and we'll wait for, then once we have a stamp plan, until then you cannot give the plans for bidding. And if we might have did that, it's hard to get any couple of companies I know who builds hotels already closed the door, one is from Lodi, a big builder, which we were counting on. Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions of the applicant? Otherwise, okay. I think we can move into public comment. Thank you, sir.

At this time, we have no speakers here in chambers that would like to speak. We'll go to Zoom. If you'd like to speak on this item, please raise your hand. We have no speakers in Zoom.

Thank you, April. Closed public comment. And moving on to discussion. Maybe we'll start with Commissioner Johnson.

I want to see it happen. I mean, I want to see it happen. That's all I can say right now. I would like to give them the... the extension, but I'm hoping and praying they can make it happen.

No, I mean, work through the comments, obviously some delays. But I'm comfortable supporting the 18 month extension.

Yes, I see this project, I'm with Commissioner Johnson. I would like to see this happen. I'm very well aware. I think everybody is aware of what's been going on with the economy lately. So that's something we could all be sympathetic with. We're seeing the renovations proceed at Streets of Brentwood, which is really exciting. We're seeing the soccer stadium go up. That's really exciting. And I see this hotel as a key component of making that area come alive with the the possibility of soccer tournaments and having a place for people that are participating in the tournament to stay and people visiting our city, having a prominent hotel right there by the exchange off of Highway 4. So I do really hope for the best for this project. I'm sorry to hear that there's been some delays. I can see the applicant is trying their best to get this thing moving. And I applaud your efforts and I don't have anything else to say.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Yeah, I'd like to echo what my fellow commissioners have said. I admired this project when it came forward back in June of, I think it's June of 24. The design was fantastic. As the Vice Chair said, the way it will likely accompany the sports complex is really admirable and very much in alignment with the both economic and social goals of the city. And so it's a really, it's understandable considering things that are happening. Let's be honest. Mr. Powell doesn't exactly have a lot of friends right now So we're all sort of doing our best with that Yeah, so as far as that said I will entertain a motion

I make a motion to adopt resolution number 26-015, approve in the 18-month time extension for the design review application DR22-012A1 for a new 69,000... and 60 square feet dual branded La Quinta and Harthorn Suites Hotel and the associated site improvements on a 2.68 acre parcel located at the southwest corner of Shady Willow Lane and Los Salos Way, APN019-910-012. I'll second that.

All in favor? Aye. Motion carries. Congrats on your extension. All right, let's see, moving on to informational reports. Commissioner Johnson, any updates from the Transplant Committee? No meeting. No meeting, oh. Excuse me, no meeting. The best kind of meeting, right? Design review, did you guys meet? No meeting. No meeting. Land use, we met last night. A quick review of the grant programs. I think there's a lot of really promising looking ones coming down for the remainder of this year and beginning of 2027. And the municipal code, I don't think you guys met either. No. Okay, great. Request for new agenda items. Seeing none. That being said, the next regular planning commission meeting is scheduled for August 4th, 2026 at 7 p.m. and will be at City of Brentwood Council Chambers located at 150 City Park Way. Do I have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Seconded. All in favor? Aye. New world record.

Holy smoke. Holy smoke.