Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Welcome to the April 6th meeting of the Carpenter Planning Commission. There was some echo. Uh so I'll start again. Welcome to the April 6th meeting of the planning carpentry planning commission. Uh I'm calling the meeting to order and asking for a roll call. Thank you. Uh, Commissioner Van Antworp here. Commissioner Benfield

here. Commissioner Lef Fevers here. Vice Chair Moyer here. And Chair Allen here. Would you please join me in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Are there any introductions, presentations, or announcements?

Chair Allen, I do have one, and you'll have to forgive me. I'm searching for my notes here. Um, I think I can do most of it off the top of my head, but I wanted to just uh remind or share with the community that this Thursday night, April 9th, the developers for the proposed Bluffs One uh residential project at Tea Time, uh, will be hosting an openhouse event at the, uh, Carpia Church there on on Valisuda Road behind Rusty's. I believe it's from six o'clock to 8 o'clock in the evening. And the intention of the openhouse event is uh for the public to learn about the proposed project to meet the developer team and as well for the community to share input on uh you know the pro proposed project or what they might like to see there in its place in terms of an alternate project or a revised project. So this is um it's not a city sanctioned event. and something that the developer is putting on to uh you know kind of formally introduce their project to the community and gather some feedback and input on it and we just want to make sure folks are aware of that and can participate if they're interested.

Okay. Um thank you for that and perhaps it's appropriate just to let the public know that members of the planning commission if any attend uh won't be expressing opinions uh pro or con publicly at that event. At least I would hope and expect that we would not. If any attend, it'll simply be to listen. Can we ask a question? Well, I think we have advice from council on that. So, I'll just leave it at what at the letter that uh that we received on that. Did you should have communication from Jenna? Okay, I'll read it.

Right. Yeah. Okay. Moving on. Um, this is the time for public comments on matters that are not on our agenda uh tonight, but that are within our um jurisdiction. Uh, and I know we've received a letter. Uh, but first, are there any, uh, members of the public that would like to address us here present tonight? Okay, seeing none, um, staff on accounts comment on the, uh, public comment received. Uh, just just to acknowledge that that you all have received a copy of the of the letter from Mr. Garza about the Surfliner project.

Mhm. Okay. Yes, we've received that. Okay. Uh moving on to the consent agenda. The first item is the minutes of the meeting held October 6, 2025. Are there any um revisions or comments? And if not, I'll invite a motion. I make a motion we approve the minutes. Is there a second? I'll second. Okay. All in favor? I I abain. And abstain from Commissioner Benfield since you weren't here. Yeah.

Right. And then um on the minutes of uh February 2nd. Uh similarly, are there any corrections, revisions, comments? And if not, is there a motion? No comments. Move to approve. Second. All in favor? I I

Okay. Uh we're moving on to our um only public hearing of the evening uh which is the Verizon Wireless Communication Facility. Um currently proposed at 912 London Avenue. Uh may I have the um well um first I guess once again u ask if there have been any ex party communications by members of the commission that they wish to divulge. Okay. Uh seeing none um does staff have a report? Um, yes. Uh, Chair Allen, members of the planning commission, Brett McNelte, project planner, um, Verizon Wireless, um, their representative, um, Celeste McGinness has asked for a continuence for this item. So they will have more time to work with the county of Santa Barbara on um identifying whether that uh their optional site at the community center will be appropriate for their facility. So they they have their uh Verizon has put a hold on their analysis uh of it and uh they need more time and they're asking uh for you to continue this item until uh your June meeting.

Okay. Um question. Thank you. I'll uh open the public hearing. Is there any member of the public here who would like to comment on the project? Uh if not, is there anyone on Zoom at this time? At this time, if you would like to make a public comment, raise your hand and we will allow you to speak. Uh Chair Allen, at this time there are no public comments. Okay. I'll bring it to the uh commission for discussion and action. Oh, yes, please. Commissioner Benfield,

is there a status as to their progress up to date up to now?

Uh through the chair, Commissioner Benfield, I can speak to this a little bit. So, um, early on following the February planning commission hearing, uh, the Verizon team, some folks from the county and some of our own planning staff, uh, were involved in regular communications and trying to provide Verizon with some of the the information that they needed to be able to assess the site and its feasibility or or suitability for Verizon. Um that was going on for a few weeks there and then it sounds like Verizon's put an internal hold on all of their site kind of acquisition work uh while they were doing their own sort of you know internal due diligence process to reassess their you know maybe their practices or how they go about identifying sites. And so I think they're wrapping that up and now they want to get back to continuing their dialogue and negotiations with the county. And so they're asking for additional time to allow that process to play out.

Well, it's no skin off my nose, but will it be continued again? It it could be it. You know, I don't know at this point in time how long it will take Verizon and the county to uh, you know, reach an agreement where they're both comfortable and decide that they want to go forward. Um, you know, and so I think in the meantime, right, Verizon's going to continue to want to preserve their option on the Sushi Terry building, but when or if things progress to a point that gives Verizon the comfort and the, you know, the confidence that they need in an alternative site, then I expect that they would withdraw that application and move forward full steam ahead on the new site.

Okay. Thank you. Any other questions of staff? Commissioner, can we ask uh Verizon for an update like in May, the middle of May, like a feasibility update? Like how feasible is it for them or is that check? Not I'm through the chair. I was looking up at the screen to see if we have any attendees from Verizon. Okay.

Attending virtually. We had asked uh Celeste to attend virtually. I'm not sure if she is on or not. No. Okay. Um you know, in absence of having someone from Verizon here to to commit to that, I'd be happy to circle back at the May hearing as part of the matters by staff or matters by commissioner at the end of the meeting and just tell you, you know, kind of from what we've been able to gather where things stand or or how things are looking at that point in time. That'd be great. Thank you. Any other questions of staff by commissioners? I don't.

Okay. Uh seeing none, discussion on continuing to June 1st. I guess one question is will we all will a quorum be present? Will we all be there June 1st or enough of us? I will be. Yes. Yes. I'll be I'll be traveling. I may not be attending. Okay. Oh, I'll be here. Okay. Look. Okay. Well, I'd invite a motion then to uh continue. I make a motion to continue the issue until June regular planning commission meeting in June. June 1st. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Uh do you want a roll call vote for this? Sure.

Okay. Commissioner Van Antworp. Yes. Commissioner Benfield. Yes. Commissioner Le Fevers. Yes. Vice Chair Moyer? Yes. and Chair Allen. Yes. Motion carries. 5. Okay. Um well, we're moving right on to other business. Um is there anything that you would like to bring up? Uh chair, I think we had two items under other business. They seem to show up on some versions of the agenda and not others. So, I'm not sure if you have them there in front of you. Uh but we were planning tonight to give your commission the chance to vote on a new chair and vice chair

and then um also to consider appointment of two commissioners to the general plan update committee.

Okay. U so I'll invite um commissioners to u make proposals for uh chair of the planning commission. I'll step back. Um, let me let me I'm not gonna say let me start over. Um, we have a very con colleial group here. You know, we all get along fine and we have always sort of handed off the chairmanship to the next person in line. And for this commission, I think that works well. So, I would John, are you the next? down the next one.

Uh, and I'd like you to ask yourself, does my voice Yeah. I want to know if you can understand me if that's a problem. Your voice is an issue. If you could remember to speak into the microphone, you can be heard. Yeah. So, you know, we're going to get whips and chains if you don't. So I recommend John for the um chairman of the planning commission. Um I concur. If that's uh a motion. Yes, I'll second it.

Okay. Okay. Um we have a motion and second. Um all in favor? I I Okay. Um, you're on, John. Yep, I'm on. Wait, we need a vice. What? We need a vice chair. Yes. Next, you need to elect a vice chair. Can't leave you dangling. Is it Glenn? Maybe. No. So, I would um I would propose that uh we I would nominate and propose that we appoint uh Jane Benfield as vice chair.

Oh. Second.

No, you're you're I got to remember. I'm stepping. You're the chair. You're the chair. Call for a vote, please. I'm the chair now. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. We're quick. Can we have a vote? Where's your microphone? Can we have a vote? Okay. Unless you need roll call vote, you're welcome to vote. Okay. All in favor? I opposed. Done deal.

All right. So, next up, I need uh the commission to select two commissioners to represent uh your board on the general plan update committee. I'm not sure how much work you'll have on this committee this year since our main focus is going to be getting the environmental impact report prepared and out the door for the general plan update, but nevertheless, in the event we do have a GPU committee meeting, uh we do need two representatives on that committee. Currently, it's commissioners Van Antworp and Benfield. Okay. I would volunteer if anyone's stepping down. Oh, okay. If not, it's fine. I' I'd like to stay if I'd like to stay. Okay, good deal. Save me some work.

Do I? Congratulations. Yeah, I'm I got twofer here. Thank you. Do we need to vote on it? If there's consensus amongst your commission for Jane and and Exie to stay on there, I'm I'm happy to just take that as direction. Terrific. Perfect. Speaking of that, is there a meeting on the 20th or is that a placeholder? That's just the placeholder. We don't have one scheduled currently. Thank you. Guess we're done.

Nearly. So, uh, so next up is is matters by the planning commission. So, this is your opportunity if if you have any um, you know, questions or asks of staff through the chair. through the chair. I do have comments. Oh, I'm

sorry. You're in charge, man. I didn't have a chance to prepare myself. I I would like to uh thank uh staff and particularly parks and public works for uh taking up a measure that was discussed at uh the carpentry open space management advisory board of placing uh portable signs around the bluffs nature preserve reminding people that it is indeed a nature preserve and uh the um the signs themselves I think are really nice and positive. They're they're portable. They're relatively inexpensive. Uh but they they feature in the logo a um probably a heron a bird and I believe it's a heron as opposed to an egret. Um you know with the point being that uh loose dogs do disturb wildlife and and so that is one of the reasons of course to to lease dogs as is required by law in any event. But I think the the signs are a nice way to get the message out. Uh they're far more visible than what we have now. Uh reminder that that is the law. And um uh so far they've been out there at least a week. Uh and one which is in the least visible position uh has been removed twice, but the others have remained in place. Um and uh so um and there have been comments on social media which have been positive. So um again it's a thank you and hope that this assists in uh some of the issues that we've encountered with with loose dogs.

Plus seal population is in decline. Correct. Uh yeah, chair has reminded me worth making the the comment that um our harbor seal population uh so far this year continues to be at numbers less than last year which I believe were at numbers less than the year before that uh and so on for a number of years now. I participated in a um Zoom or um video conference with the Noah um marine biologist uh who um is supervising the u census uh using aerial photographs uh up and down the California coast. uh it was completed uh last year the aerial portion of it in the photographs but there are hundreds of thousands of photographs at least tens of thousands of photographs that all need to be analyzed and the count made uh there were participants from a number of other sites up and down the California coast um and uh along most of the coast uh harbor seal numbers uh appear to be declining at other locations as well. None of the participants um you know ventured with any positivity a specific reason for this to be occurring but um it it does seem to be a um a decline. um our numbers in Carperia, whereas uh 15 years ago or so, you'd see numbers in the 300s often uh for a number of years um or fairly often. Uh now it's rare that we hit a hundred adults out there and the pup uh counts have come down not quite as fast, but they've still been down uh each year. I think this year we'll see a high of 50

or 55. And I'll I'll clarify when when uh we do the um the reports which you may see weekly in the coastal view uh the numbers that are given are conservative. So if for example a volunteer records 60 pups on the beach and the volunteers on the previous shift and the subsequent shift say 50 or 45 or something like that don't accept the high that high count because sometimes it's hard to distinguish adults from from pups. They grow very rapidly. Um and similarly with adult counts uh we don't accept an aberrant really high count you know u so the counts are are conservative but obviously over over months and years they can be relied upon um and uh there was one other comment that I wanted to make which I forgot no which is simply that um uh the um scientists who I apologize I have forgotten uh her name who is in charge of the census anticipates or hopes that it will be published this year and the last previous census of uh harbor seals in California I think came out around 2012. So, um it's expected that we'll see a um a decline from in the Santa Barbara channel. I think the numbers in 2012, uh from Point Conception probably all the way to the Mexican border were maybe around 5,000 for harbor sales. I'll be surprised if they're, you know, in the 3,000 or half that range. We'll see. Um as far as we know, sea lions are still in the hundreds of thousand or over 100 thousand. And the same with elephant seals. I haven't heard of any significant decline there though they are more susceptible to the disease you know that we all read about than harbor seals are. So there you go a brief

education on population and so on. Thank you John for taking everyone's time on my behalf just meeting and record already so might as well spend some time. Uh I had I just wanted to say that the tank is gone. Yeah. Mhm. Maybe people that that are watching don't know that, but I rode my white bike by there yesterday and I Wow, it's amazing.

Yes. Thank Thank you, chair. You've stolen one of my updates from the director's report. Um but uh yes, the decommissioning activities are well underway. The tank is all gone now other than than the floor of it or the foundation which um will be part of the next phase of work uh which you know, I don't have an exact start date for it yet. We're still waiting on getting, you know, some final approvals from other agencies, but the next stage would be to start in on some of the the decommissioning of structures that are below grade or underground or that are built into the ground. And so, um, that'll be coming up sometime in the coming weeks, I expect. And then um also the you I can't recall if I reported to you on this previously or not, but there was a a related permit application to provide a separate source of power to the pier and to be able to turn the power off to the entire plant. And so the first phase of that work has commenced now in the pier or excuse me the plant the the entire facility and is now disconnected from electricity and there's a separate routing of power to the pier and the final piece of that will be that Edison has to come out sometime in the next you know few weeks to a month and replace a power pole along the railroad tracks there to facilitate the permanent routing of a new power source to the pier uh be underground lines from the power pole and an existing powerpool gets removed. So in that sense it should be uh you know no major change no net change. Uh but that will be coming up sometime in the next you know say 6 weeks 8 weeks something like that. And then also um we're still hoping that Chevron will have a chance sometime in late April to uh go out and do some very limited work on this on Tarpits Beach to go and

expose the pipelines where they cross the sandy beach there and make a cut of those pipelines to separate kind of the onshore decommissioning work from the offshore work. And that would then facilitate the offshore decommissioning work to start up sometime over the summer if those cuts are made. Uh if we don't reach our little title favorable title window in April, then that work would be postponed till the fall when we have another favorable title window.

Thank you, the chair. A couple quick questions. I hope we're quick. Um 861 was the big one of course coming down. There's still um several above gun structures. any timeline for removing all of the above ground stuff and also do we have any concept yet of how many trees are going to have to come out because of below ground contamination. Uh so through the chair vice chair or commissioner Allen you've been demoted I forgot. Um not either of those things.

Um there there I don't have an exact timeline for the rest of the structures to come out. I think it's probably tied to the the remediation, the soil remediation work getting underway since some of these structures have permanent foundations and there isn't really enough there to keep them busy on just the above ground piece. Um, but I so I think once the the remediation plans for the soil work, soil excavation uh are approved and finalized by the EPA, then you'll see the rest of those structures start to come down. In terms of the tree removal plan, there is a number of trees that were identified in the EI that have to come out because they're in known areas of soil contamination. Um, I think now all of those have come out other than I think maybe either last week or this week they were working on like the final three that were right by tank 861.

So, um, you know, barring anything like a tree dying or a tree falling, we're not I don't think we're anticipating any additional trees coming out at this time. Okay, good. And um with respect to the pier, uh Chevron's obviously going to continue to need to use it to do the offshore uh decommissioning and that'll probably be a few years of work. Um, so maybe this is a kind of premature question, but any idea what other contractors may continue or whether it's anticipated that the other contractors that use the pure will continue to do so or what their timeline is in anticipation of Chevron ultimately leaving.

Um, I don't have a lot of these details at my fingertips. I know that you know u a number of other entities do use the pier decor being one of them. Um and I expect that that would continue as you say for some some period of time as they're continuing to either wind down or decommission the offshore facilities. Uh and I think the pier may also still be serving in a capacity support capacity to some of the other platforms that are still operational. Um, right now Chevron's got a lease that I think um is able to be to remain valid for a couple more years. I don't have the exact date. 2029 sticks in my head, but it could be off by a year. Um, beyond that, I don't know if they intend to seek to renew or extend it or not. We haven't had those conversations yet, but I know right now they they are interested in um maintaining their lease through the full term that that's allowed for currently.

Thank you. Have a quick question. Quick one. Yeah. Um, regarding short-term rentals and the ordinance in 2017, I think have we what would the process be for us to review that and does the planning commission get involved in that or how can um I'm worried about clustering of single owners. Um, you know, there's there's no cap on how many rentals in the beach area you can have, STRs. No, there is.

No, there is. There's a cap. There is a cap. Well, there's a cap, but I'm talking about per owner. Is there per owner cap? Okay. Yeah, that that's where my question was. I don't think we thought of that.

Through the chair, Commissioner Vanorp. Um, I'm glad you asked this question. We are working uh with our city attorney's office on um what's currently kind of a more narrow focused suite of changes that we seek to make to the short-term rental uh ordinance for the city. Uh mostly focused around improving our enforcement tools, enforcement and monitoring tools. So, it would be things like increasing the fine amounts for violations of our of our STR regulations as well as uh taking some of the steps to uh allow us to enter into um agreements with some of the short-term rental host platforms. So like the Airbnbs and VBOs's to require them to do mandatory reporting back to the city on any short-term rentals within our jurisdiction that they host on their platforms. And then as part of that, right, we can even require that those host platforms have to in turn require the uh short-term rental operator to include their license number on their ads. And so all this, right, gives us better tools hopefully to to uh weed out unlicensed or illegal short-term rental activities. So we know for sure we're moving forward with, you know, kind of this focused suite of enforcement tools. Um, but I think there will be an opportunity for the city council and or perhaps your commission to provide us input on other, you know, tools or changes maybe that we want to take a look at. uh you know ultimately right the city council kind of gives us our marching orders in that regard and then we take we take those those ordinances through the process uh but I do expect that when we make amend amendments to the short-term rental ordinance it will come to your commission it will go to city council and ultimately would have to go on to the coastal commission in some form for their for their approval as well. Uh so we're you know we're kind

of keeping an eye on things. We're looking at what other jurisdictions are doing. We're looking even at uh recent ordinances that go in front of the the Coastal Commission to see uh how or if the Coastal Commission is taking a different stance towards vacation rentals, short-term vacation rentals. Um, and you know, when we get around to actually moving forward with this ordinance package, we can certainly have this discussion on, you know, do we want to include uh, you know, consideration of a cap on how many licenses one person or one entity can can control. Um, you know, it's not something that's in the ordinance currently. As Commissioner Benfield noted, we do have an overall, you know, cap on the number of licenses, but there's nothing to say that one person couldn't control, you know, four licenses or a dozen licenses or what have you. Uh, but we have had this this conversation come up from other members of the public in the past who say, you know, hey, we should democratize the licenses, right? And and spread them around a little bit more. So, it it's not um it's not off the table. It's just not something that we've been given direction yet from the council to to actively dig into and pursue. Got it. Thank you.

I I do have an another um question uh a little out of the scope of this topic but just and I think it may be uh for council to adise uh me or us uh in future. Um and that's to what extent if any uh is it appropriate for a planning commissioner to comment in the during the preparation of the draft DIIR when public comment is open on a project that may come before the planning commission. Good question because obviously we'll be reviewing that draft before

Commissioner Allen. That's a good question. I think that's something we'd want to run through our legal counsel and then we can circle back with with you or individual commissioners if they have questions along those lines.

Sure. If there's nothing else from uh the commission. So in your director's report this evening, you should have the city calendar for the month of April as well as our various activity summary reports for the month of March. And I think you also have uh ARB meeting minutes from one or two of the most recent ARB meetings. Um in terms of you know kind of highlights or just a few key things to talk about. Obviously we've already talked about the Chevron decommissioning project. Um I did want to mention kind of taking us all the way back to the beginning of the meeting with the the Bluffs one residential project proposed next door to us here. Uh that application was called complete over the winter and uh we issued earlier this year a 145page letter uh evaluating the project's consistency or lack thereof with all the various city policies and regulations that may apply to that project. um that will hopefully be the basis for ongoing dialogues with the applicants over you know revisions to the project that we believe are necessary to uh make the project better conform to our general plan, coastal plan and various regulations. Um we're also in the midst of bringing a proposal to the city council here this coming Monday uh to get a consultant on board to help prepare the environmental impact report for that project. And so that's going to be probably the next big work effort on that bluffs project is to start in on an environmental impact report. Um as far as the other housing projects, um I think we're waiting on a resubmitt from the Loganas residential project uh down at the end of Valale. I believe they're close to being called complete. I think last time there was just a couple of items that were left

outstanding on their most recent submitt. So, I expect when they do resubmit here that that we'll probably be ready to start moving forward with that project. And then, um the road project, uh the applicant did file suit against the city and so uh we're currently evaluating that lawsuit, but I'm not allowed to speak any more about that. And then uh attendance at the next meeting. Will everybody be here? Sure. Yep. I will.

I will be traveling. So I will not be attending in person. I'll I may be able to attend uh via a Zoom link, but um at this point I don't I don't know. All right. I won't be here in person. Right. um for anything more. Uh chair, we've got a couple things parked there tenatively, but I'm I'm not 100% confident yet whether they'll be ready to move forward for May or not. All right, we're done. Ajourn. You're in charge. Hey, that was too much. Not quite a record.