Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good evening, good evening. The meeting of the Carson Planning Commission is officially called to order. And we'll ask the secretary for a roll call, please.

Madam Chair Thomas?

Here.

Vice Chair Diaz?

Here.

Commissioner Monteclaro? Here. Commissioner Johnson?

Here.

Commissioner Infome?

Here.

Commissioner Guerra is excused. Commissioner Huff?

Present.

Commissioner Dutasso has not arrived. Commissioner Wilson is excused. We have a quorum.

Thank you. Next on the agenda will be our flag salute, and Commissioner Mfume will lead us in that salute. Thank you. Next, we have oral communications for matters not listed on the agenda. The public may at this time address the members of the Planning Commission on any matters within the jurisdiction of the Planning Commission. No action may be taken on non-agendized items except as authorized by law. Speakers are requested to limit their comments to no more than three minutes, each speaking once. Madam Secretary, do we have any cards?

They are not, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Oral communications for non-public hearing items listed on the agenda, members of the public may at this time address the members of the Planning Commission on any matters within the jurisdiction of the Planning Commission. No action may be taken on non-agendized items except as authorized by law. Speakers are requested to limit their comments to no more than three minutes, each speaking once. Do we have any speakers, ma'am?

They are not, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Next item on the agenda will be the approval of the minutes from October 28, 2025.

Madam Chair? Yes. Move to approve.

I second the motion.

It's been moved by Vice Chair Diaz, seconded by Commissioner Dale Huff. You can cast your votes at this time. Madam Clerk, Madam Secretary, will you report the vote?

Motion carries.

Thank you. Next item on the agenda will be for a public hearing. Consider adopting a resolution of the Planning Commission of the City of Carson finding a SECA exemption and conditionally approving Site Plan and Design Review Number 04-24 for demolition of an existing building and all associated site improvements and development of a new 58,938 square foot Class A light industrial building and associated improvements at 2277 East 220th Street, application 7316-025-079, 7316-025-080. I will now yield to our associate planner, Richard Garcia. You have the floor.

Good evening Madam Chair and Commissioners. Tonight we bring to you site plan and design review number 2-24, DOR 2-24. Again, it is at 2277 East 220th Street. The proposed project is the development of a 58,938 square foot light industrial building and associated site improvements. Site information, this address 2277 East 220th Street contains two APNs, so there's two parcels for this project. It's 7316-025-079 and 7316-025-080. The general plan land use designation for this property is light industrial. This property is currently zoned MLD, manufacturing light, and it's located in a design overlay zone. the present use and development of this property. So when we received this application, there was a two-story building that was vacant since 2019. Currently, it's a vacant lot. That building has since been demolished. The applicant did receive approval for just the demolition portion of the building. The surrounding uses and zoning for properties around this project site is to the north, south, east and west is all manufacturing light and they all are in the design overlay zone as well. Current access to the site is provided by four driveways. Two of them are along 220th Street and two are along Arnold Center Road. This is an aerial image of the property and its surrounding properties, and you can see the surrounding zoning mld is observed and mhd to the east of the property, which is the railroad. Right in the Center you see the project location. Here's a closeup of the property as it stands currently, no longer containing the office building that was there when the application was first received. And you still see all four driveways in this area. So the southern part of this image is 220th Street and to the west would be Arnold Center Road. This is a site plan of the proposed project. Here the image is a little bit, Flipped to the left, you'll see 220th Street, which on the previous image was actually on the south. And then on this current south is Arnold Center Road. The proposed project is a 58,937 square foot industrial building. They are proposing 73 vehicle parking spaces for the property along 220th Street and some along the area where the trailers can be and the dock doors are located. There's 12 dock doors proposed with this project, two trailer parking spaces. The property is proposing 21,954 square feet of landscaping and two driveways along Arnold Center Road will be closed and reconstructed to a new street curb. Both of those driveways that are proposed to be closed are identified circled red on this image. Here's an image of the landscape plants that are proposed for this project. And to the right, you'll see a couple examples that are also found on the documents you guys have in front of you regarding some of the trees that you will see as part of this project. There's 37 trees proposed, over 700 shrubs and ground cover. And on the next slide, I'll show some samples of the ground cover and shrubs that are being proposed. Just for images to get some samples. Here we see the South and North elevation of the proposed building and observed by the elevations the highest point on these buildings on this building sorry is 45 feet and six inches at its highest point. here's the West and East elevation for the proposed building. CEQA review for this project. The proposed project is categorically exempt from the provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act CEQA pursuant to CEQA guidelines section 15.3.32, infill development, which consists of environmentally benign infill projects which are consistent with local general plan and zoning requirements. This project meets all the criteria for the CEQA categorical exemption. The project is consistent with the applicable general plan designation and general plan policies as well as with applicable zoning designation and regulations. The proposed development is within the city of Carson jurisdiction and the project site is not larger than five acres and is substantially surrounded by urban light industrial uses. There is no natural or native vegetation on the project site, neither has no value as a habitat for endangered, rare or threatened species. The site was previously and is currently developed and can be adequately serviced by all required utilities and public services. Approval of this project will not result in any significant effects related to traffic, noise, air quality or water quality. Staff recommendation is to adopt resolution number 25-2893 entitled A Resolution of the Planning Commission of the City of Carson, finding a CEQA exemption and conditionally approving site plan and design review number 4-24 for demolition of an existing building and all associated site improvements and development of a new 58,938 square foot Class A light industrial building and associated improvements at 2277 East 220th Street. Staff would like to note that we would like to recommend approval of this item with a slight correction that the mention of demolition be removed from the title of the proposed resolution before you. I'm available for any questions and we also have the applicant here.

Thank you very much. To my colleagues, any questions?

Do we have a tentative tenant? Or use.

I can relay that over to the applicant, but at the time of application, we did not have a tentative tenant I don't know if that has changed as of today.

Anyone else. Okay, thank you. You did address a concern that I had having visited the site, the fact that the building had already been demolished and this read like it was yet to be demolished. But thank you. I think if we have any further questions, we can ask the applicant who is with us tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Am I looking at Daniel?

Yes.

Okay, Daniel Wilson.

Good evening, everybody. Good evening. Thanks for being here with us. So no, to answer your question, there is not a tenant that we have signed up yet, so we're building it to spec. It's a speculative building, so it can accommodate various tenants.

Any other questions? And I had the same thought that Commissioner Johnson had also, questioning whether or not you have a timeline.

Yes, so with the rainy season upon us, we don't really want to open the site up. It is highly expansive soils. So we would like to go through the permitting process and hopefully sometime in late March Q1, late Q1, we would like to break ground. And it's about an eight month construction schedule. So we're anticipating finishing the job by Q4, 2026.

Okay, thank you. Anyone else?

I have a question. Yes, Mr. Wilson, as the applicant, are you in concurrence with the general conditions under Exhibit B of this project?

We've reviewed all the general conditions and we have no, we're not pushing back on anything at this moment.

Great, thank you.

If there are no further questions, I have one more card. Thank you, unless you'd like to make a statement before sitting down.

No, I appreciate everybody being here with us, and Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I also have a card from Chris Savage.

Good evening, everyone.

Good evening.

Chris Savage with RGA Architects. I'm the architect of record on the project. I just filled out a speaker card and wanted to let you know that I'm available to answer any questions. Aside from that, like Daniel said, happy Thanksgiving.

Thank you. Do we have any other speakers?

There are none, Madam Chair.

With that, I will close the public hearing and open discussion for members of the commission.

No discussion.

No discussion. No discussion. then I will entertain a motion.

Madam Chair? Yes. I would move to approve the project as been illustrated this evening and to make the change or correction to remove the demolition portion of this project because it's already been removed. So with that, I'm making a motion as staff's recommended this evening and present it.

And Commissioner Diaz and Chair Thomas, I can provide the specifics of the change to the resolution title if you'd like. Yes, please.

Yes, please.

So we would just delete the words demolition of an existing building and all associated site improvements and from the title. So read site plan and design. So full title would be a resolution of the Planning Commission of the City of Carson finding a CEQA exemption and conditionally approving site plan and design review number 4-24 for development of a new 58,938 square foot Class A light industrial building and associated improvements at 2277 East 220th Street, APN 7316-025-079 and 7316-025-080. Okay, great. So what we have here, you're gonna have you kind of redo it before I sign it, right? Yeah, we'll revise in the version that this will be deemed part of the, the motion will be with the revised title. So we'll, we'll make that change and for the version that you signed.

Thank you. And the maker of motion accepts that and recognizes that. Thank you.

Now, did we get a second?

I second the motion as it's being modified.

Thank you. Moved and second moved by vice chair Diaz and second by Commissioner Dale Huff, call for the vote, please.

Motion carries.

Thank you. Okay. That was painless. Everybody should have a good Thanksgiving from that, right? Thank you. Thank you for coming. All right. And we can discuss it tonight or we can I have just something in my head that I would like to ask our city attorney, because I've heard it over and over again in multiple meetings. And that's about the size of warehouses. Was there ever an ordinance passed that was putting a moratorium or something on warehouses? And the size that I keep remembering is 30,000 square feet. Does that exist? Is it no longer existing? Can you give me a

Yeah, so two different things. One is there was a moratorium on redevelopment of refinery sites, which has since expired. It's no longer in effect. And two is you mentioned the warehouse square footage limitation. that was part of the general plan update and the phase one code that says in the flex district, the flex zone. So it's the flex district. Only in the flex district or the flex zone, warehouses are limited to, I believe it's, is it 30 or? Yes, about 30 square, 30,000 square feet, yes. This project was not in the flex district, it was in the land industrial zone.

Right, right, yes. As I said, I had a chance to go there. It's really nice back there. It's laid out real nice, and I wouldn't see any reason to not approve it. That was just stuck in my head. But the Flex District, so that makes a difference. Thank you for clearing that up for me. Next we have is the Manager's Report.

Well, good evening. Thank you, Chair Thomas. First, I'd like to commend you specifically on a great presentation to our city council. I'd also like to thank staff for the work that they've put into that. That being my very first city council meeting, I was taking notes as you were speaking. So, wonderful job there. I'd also like to thank the staff. for their hard work in putting together tonight's agenda these agendas even though we had one item do take a lot of time and they put a lot of work into making sure that you have good information so that you can make great decisions on behalf of this community so i want to commend the staff i also want to say happy thanksgiving to everyone i hope everybody gets a lot to eat and has a wonderful time visiting with family and friends so that's it for me chair

Thank you very much. Oral communications for our commissioners, starting to my right, Commissioner Monteclair.

So I'm glad to be here tonight. And I apologize for not being here last time. But I'm glad to say that November is a very special time memorable months for me, having a new granddaughter at home and being a babysitter all the time. So that's memorable because I haven't been such for some time, for a long time. Anyhow, I'm recommending the staff for a good job for the preparation of the agenda tonight. And it's so clear to me that there is really no need to ask questions. So thank you, and to everyone, enjoy. We have a lot of things to be thankful of, and this is an opportunity for us, especially being a resident of Carson, the South Bay Jewel. So thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Commissioner Johnson.

Thank you, happy to be here, happy to serve, thank you.

Commissioner Mfume.

Happy to be here. I want to say thank you to the wonderful city staff here. And hello to my fellow commissioners. And I do want to wish everyone a very happy, safe Thanksgiving.

That completes me. Thank you. Commissioner Huff.

Ditto to everyone's comments. There's not much left to say. Same thing. This is a wonderful staff. This is a wonderful commission to be a part of. I would only ask that we say a little prayer for our missing commissioners, whatever they're facing. We do miss them tonight. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. Thank you.

Thank you, Vice Chair Diaz.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just want to echo some of the sentiments and also say with staff's preparation before our meetings, we're able to see them online first and we have copies here. And with that, the devil is in the details. So when you present everything in our report, it does minimize any questions or any additional concerns that we could raise here. So thank you again for all the hard work that's done. And to my fellow commissioners, thank you for a job well done. And happy Thanksgiving. And thank you, staff. Appreciate it. Thank you.

I'm complete. Thank you. Always, I love the meetings. Well planned, laid out, all of the information is readily available. So thank you. I appreciate the staff. I also would like to say I had an opportunity to talk with Commissioner Guerra, after our last meeting, having missed him, and he is not feeling well. And in fact, he was just returning home from the hospital the day I called him. So do keep him in your prayers. And also Commissioner Wilson. Not sure about Dr. Ossel, Commissioner Dr. Ossel, but hopefully all is well with him. I kind of thought we were off tonight because it was Thanksgiving week. So I was ready. And I just got back in town yesterday. So I was like, wait, what? But I appreciate Laura. She keeps us on our toes. She calls you. Make sure you're still awake. We do appreciate it. But I do want to make one announcement. On the 5th of December, which is next week, next Friday, the city will be having its Winter Fest. So for those of you who are a part of our viewing audience, it's going to be an exciting evening. It will be held at Veterans Park. You can go online, see the flyers on the city website and see all of the activities that are planned. In collaboration with Carson Citizens Cultural Arts Foundation, we will be providing free toys for the kids who are residents of the city of Carson. Just a lot going on. It will begin at 5 p.m., and it will go from 5 to 8. So, again, if you have little ones and you want to bring them, come out, enjoy the day, and it will truly kick off Christmas with snow runs and the whole bit. So make sure you're there with your sons, Commissioner Johnson. Every year. And usually the parents are ready to go home before the kids are. So we're looking forward to a safe and fun evening on that evening. Yes, Laura.

Before we finish the meeting, I would like to let you know that we have one more meeting this year.

Which is December the 9th. If you have not already, put it on your calendar. Put it on your calendar.

So, yes, we will be prepared for that as well.

So thank you so much. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Safe holiday season if you're traveling. Hopefully all will go well, and we'll see you on the 9th. This meeting is adjourned.