Planning and Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

City of Claremont. Commissioners, you should have received the minutes from the June 2nd meeting. If there are no additions, corrections, or questions, I will entertain a motion and a second for approval.

I have one tiny correction. Go ahead. On the very last page where it says motion to recommend approval of ordinance 20261-021, we already approved that on the page before. That needs to say 26... 2026-022. Because we've already got 221 on the page before that and we had combined them together. So one tiny correction. Okay. Are there any other corrections? I'll make a motion to approve with the correction.

With the correction. Okay. Do I have a second?

Second.

All in favor? Aye.

Aye.

That is unanimous. We will now move to Commissioner Reports. I will start to my far right with Commissioner Hoisington.

Oh, I attended the city Juneteenth program. It was very, very good. I invite everyone next year to please find time to come down and celebrate Juneteenth with us. And that's all I have.

All right. Thank you very much, Commissioner Kramer. Thank you. I just want to begin by saying how pleased I am to see the ordinance around dark sky compliance tonight. So this is the first times I've really looked forward to one of these meetings because I think a lot of people know that that's been something I've advocated for a long time. But I also want to recognize and thank our staff and the legal department for the considerable amount of work that went into bringing this ordinance forward. So I appreciate this opportunity for us to have the discussion tonight around something I feel very important. Thank you.

Thank you commissioner Nemec. Yes, I like to thank all those Patriots for coming out in the weather for 4th of July for the Claremont to 50. Once again, thank you and thank you for showing your support no other report.

Thank you. And Commissioner Ansuwa.

I just want to apologize for being a bit tardy. I spent the 4th of July potty training a two-year-old, so it's been a lot of fun. Yeah, for sure, for sure.

You are present and accounted for. Exactly. Thank you for making it. I just wanted to point out one community event that we have coming up, the Lake County Hobnob, and the venue host is City of Claremont, so at the Claremont Performing Arts Center on Monday the 27th will be a Hobnob where people can meet people running for city, county, state, and federal office, and that is a free event, and it's from 5 to 7.30, so I just wanted to make that known. Before we move into unfinished and new business, commissioners will report any disclosures they have on any of tonight's items. Please report which agenda item, subject matter, and identify the person's groups you may have communicated with. If there is more than one, please report them individually. As a reminder to commissioners, to be transparent with the public, disclose any ex parte communication, written or verbal, in commissioner investigations, site visits, expert opinions received, and communications being read tonight into the record must be disclosed. at the public meeting where final action will be taken. By making disclosure, any such activities, actions, and communication shall not be presumed prejudicial and allows persons who have opinions to the contrary a reasonable opportunity to refute and respond. So if anybody would like to make disclosures, I'll start to my far left. Commissioner Ensua, any disclosures you would like to make?

No disclosures at this time.

Commissioner Nemec. No disclosure at this time as well. Commissioner Kramer. No disclosures. Commissioner Hoisington.

No disclosures.

and the chair has no disclosures at this time either. Having addressed the disclosures, we'll now move into unfinished and new business. Before we have the city staff and applicant present, we will now need to handle the items of the agenda individually. So we will start with item number one. And we'll hear city staff on item number one, which is resolution 2026-021R.

Good evening, planning and zoning commissioners and guests. Justine Day with Development Services. The applicant, Peacock Partnership, is requesting a conditional use permit to allow for a veterinary clinic to operate on a property that is currently undergoing site review. The property is located at the southeast corner of South US Highway 27 and Citrus Tower Boulevard intersection within the Governor's Lake Commerce Center plan unit development. On your screen, the parcel is outlined in yellow. And just a zoomed in view of the parcel. The applicant is proposing to build out a new animal clinic with the future multi-tenant shell building. The clinic will operate entirely indoors and offer services such as checkups, diagnoses, dental care, and minor surgery to small animals. No overnight boarding or the treatment of large animals such as livestock will be provided. Business hours will be Monday through Friday from 7am to 6pm and Saturday from 8am to 2pm. The clinic will be preparing a waste management plan that includes an internal pet relief area. In the future, they may add an outdoor relief area with a monitored waste station. And just to show the concept plan, they will be going into a future multi-tenant building. The property is governed by ordinance number 2020-24, which allows for mixed use development with C1 light commercial uses. The veterinary clinic may be comparable to retail or medical office use within this district due to the services being offered. Additionally, the parcel is situated between commercial development on the north, south, and west sides of the parcel, while Lake Falter provides a buffer on the east side. The nearest residential use is approximately 1,100 feet away across South US Highway 27. And the nearest veterinary clinic is approximately 1 and 1 half miles away south of the Heartwood Marsh Road. Based on the site's locations and surrounding uses, SAF finds the proposed use compatible with the district and would not be more obnoxious to the existing permitted uses. When evaluating a request for a conditional use permit section 101 to 12 of the land development code outline specific development standards that are required to be met. Staff has reviewed the application and finds the proposed use can meet the general criteria for approval and would not be detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the surrounding community. Therefore staff recommends approval of resolution number 2026-021R. This concludes staff presentation.

Thank you very much. We'd now like to hear from the applicant.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Jim Graham. I'm with CityVet. The applicant is actually Peacock Partnership. They're our architect. But yeah, really, I'm just here to answer any questions you all may have. And we really think will be a great service and an amenity to the community.

All right, well thank you very much and please stand by because the commissioners may have some questions.

Be happy to, thank you. Thank you.

All right, we'll now open it up for public comment. If there's anybody here who would like to come up and speak in the public hearing section of our meeting, please come up at this time. Anybody like to speak on this item? Hearing no, 1, we will close the public hearing and we will go to the commission. So I will start to my far right with commissioner.

Thank you. Thank you. Mr. In reviewing this, I see that it's built within the multi-tenant space. The hours are reasonable. When I first started reading, I was worried about the waste management, but they addressed that. They're not going to service any large animals. The one question that I have, the staff report says that the clinic will not provide overnight boarding or offering care. to large animals such as livestock, et cetera. But then in the resolution 2026-021R, section two, number three, it talks about when it's medically necessary for overnight observation and monitoring may be allowed onsite overnight. So I'm wondering why is there a conflict between that statement and this one?

So that was put in as a in the occurrence of something happening, that they have that just for medical necessity. Sometimes, at least from my previous experience, animals will come in late or like right before a clinic is closing that could have an emergency situation. It's a lot better for the animal if they're able to help the animal in that case, which may bleed into extending the overnight or extending their business hours or potentially overnight depending on if they need to be one surgically evaluated and then to um find a facility for them to actually give the overnight like an er right and i understand that yeah when i read that there will be no overnight i thought what if there's an emergency with an animal that

the surgery did not go as well, or the owner can't pick the animal up.

The applicant has stood up. Maybe he can expand upon that.

I just wondered why the report was different than the resident. Sure.

We tend to make a designation between boarding and hospitalization. So for example, you wouldn't go to the hospital and say, hey, I need a room for the night. Similar situation, a customer cannot bring their pet to us and just say, hey, I'm going on vacation. I need you to watch my pet overnight. That's not going to happen. So yes, if there are any medical procedures, really the only time an animal will be kept overnight is in regard to a medical procedure. And then that customer is paying for that medical procedure. They're not, they're not billed for boarding or anything like that. And again, they just can't bring their pet to us and say, we'd like you to keep our pet overnight. And in most cases, if those animals are kept overnight, they're sedated, they're in their kennels, they're nice and comfortable and hopefully resting and recuperating.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all I have.

Okay. Commissioner Kramer.

I think this one is pretty straightforward for me tonight. And I think Commissioner Hoisington brought up most of the things. I only had one question. This is more for staff. Because it's a multi-tenant commercial center, are we satisfied that the parking calculation accounts not only for CityVet, but for the cumulative demand once the remaining tenant spaces are occupied?

so currently right now they are over the amount i believe they're providing 96 uh spaces and for just the retail towards the north and the vet they're required 27 so they are more than enough currently we are unsure of the use on the middle tenant so far well you answered that quite nicely justine thank you very much that's all i have all right commissioner nimick

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Number one, I'd like to point out to staff that online, the exceptional plan is online, but it's not in my packet. Are we saving money? I asked this question numerous times. I'm not here to beat up my staff. I think they're doing a phenomenal job, but it's not in my packet, okay? And maybe it's not in my packet. Does anybody else have it? All right, because you know I'm a stickler for that. That was a very good question, Mr. Kramer. And I'm sure that you got that answer by looking online. So my question to staff is, are we going to be doing away with our packets and just doing everything online? Or are we going to be more thorough in making sure we get a full packet? Okay, that's number one. Number two, I would like to ask the applicant, in your own words, How is this going to benefit Claremont?

How is it going to benefit Claremont? I assume that a significant portion of your residents are pet owners. We provide really top-notch service. And on top of that, we're a little different than other vet providers. A lot of your national corporate providers, say a Banfield, a number of the others, the vet is just an employee. At our locations, our vet is an owner. They are a partner with us at City Vet. So you have a veterinarian that's going to live here, work here, play here, and be a part of your community as we hope that this clinic will be and be a good service provider to your community.

That was a great answer, considering that you have a lot of vets and clinics surrounding you from Hartwood Marsh straight on down.

That is something that when we look at a potential new location, something that we do take into consideration. We look at the overall population within a certain radius around that site and then also look at the competition. And we would not have chosen this location if we didn't think that there was demand and the growth that would make this clinic successful.

Being a pet owner, I would like to ask one question to follow up on Commissioner Hoyston's question. If there is an overnight stay on a late procedure or emergency procedure, will there be any staff members

Um, oftentimes staff may, if, if we end up offering urgent care at this location, staff very well would be there till maybe 10 or 11 o'clock, but usually staff does not stay overnight. As I mentioned, the pets are often sedated and then the clinical open back up at 7am and staff will be right there.

So that's a nine hour non-supervision of the animals.

Correct. While they're in their kennels. Yes.

Okay. No other questions.

Commissioner Ansu.

Thank you, Chair. Mr. Franklin, correct? Mr. Graham. Mr. Graham, sorry about that. That's okay. I'll give you all a card. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Make sure you check with me. We'll get you some nice initial discounts. I appreciate it. No, no, no, no, no.

No, I'm sorry. Get me in trouble. I'm in trouble. Get me in trouble. Sorry.

Don't worry. I actually don't have any questions. Everybody actually asked everything that I was concerned about. Um, mainly just the parking in that area in general. So I, I think, uh, this is open and shut.

Parking is a very important issue to us as well. Usually, I think we're still in the process of actually negotiating this lease. We usually make sure that we have a couple either short-term or reserved parking spaces for us right in front of the clinic for a couple of reasons. One, if there are any animals that are The owner has to pick them up and carry them in, especially if they're a larger animal. Or also, again, if the animal's immobile and they're bringing them in for euthanasia. So yeah, that's one issue. And yeah, I think the other issue is that most of our appointments, we don't do a lot of walk-in. So most of our appointments are scheduled. or there's often a drop off and pick up time period. So we're not very parking heavy.

Great. No, that's good to hear. I know there's a couple of other vet offices in the area that get a bit swamped either from double scheduling or whatnot. So it's nice to see that you are thinking about doing a temporary drop off or spot for your patients.

Yes, that's something we're always looking for. It's the property owners that we lease from that don't always like that so much. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you. Just a clarification on the timing. Somebody does bring their dog in before your closing time of 6 o'clock and it is an emergency and you have to treat them. You're still locking the doors at 6 o'clock. You are closing for business at that time even if you're extended. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, well, I mean, if we're if we're extended, well, we would have we would be open to urgent care. So say, yes, our normal appointments, say, for example, our our standard clinic hours are seven to seven. And then but then if we open for urgent care, we may stay open till nine or ten, 10 p.m. But, again, not knowing just yet whether or not this location will have urgent care. But, yeah, normally, normal business hours, yeah, we'll close. No more regular appointments. None of that. Only urgent care.

Can I ask a quick follow-up?

Yeah, go ahead. So you've mentioned that twice now about if it'll have urgent care or not. What usually determines in y'all's – y'all's perspective, what is urgent care?

There are a number of factors that go into that. Again, number one is competition. If we've got a lot of other vets or if all of our nearest competitors are already offering, uh, urgent care, or if there's say, um, uh, an emergency hospital nearby, we probably wouldn't offer it. Uh, say if there was a veg veterinary, uh, yeah, I can't remember the acronym for veg, but it's, uh, Yeah, veterinary emergency group or something like that. So if they have one of their hospitals nearby, we're probably not going to do it. So, yeah, it's just a matter of really looking at that. And also our veterinarian and their staffing, if they can handle it from a staffing standpoint.

Mr. Chairman, if I may just one more quick question, please. Just curious, because I've been to a lot of vets in Claymont. and i actually had to go outside claymont to find a good one uh what's the largest now i know you say you don't have livestock what is the largest breed that you would take The largest breed of animal or what animal and the largest that you have experience with.

Now you're getting a little outside of my realm. I'm our vice president of real estate. Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm not a veterinarian.

I'm so sorry.

You spoke very well about the other questions. No, okay. I get it.

Yeah. I mean, normally it's really just household pets. Occasionally we get an exotic, say a bird, a snake, iguana. But in terms of size, no, we're definitely not taking any, you know, nobody coming in with a goat or, yeah, things like that. No, we're not.

Well, the reason I'm asking, you got Rottweilers, you got... Oh, yeah, no. I mean, their size of goats, some of these.

Yeah.

No, I'm just asking because I want to know pretty much, after I read that staff did a great job on explaining everything, if you had the capability of... keeping such a large animal overnight. Yes.

That's why I'm asking that question. Gosh, I wish I, I was just at our Lake Nona clinic today. And yeah, we have, we have a number of range of size of kennels and some of them are, I'd say literally about as wide as this podium. And yet, you know, full, you know, just, there's nothing above it. So there's, you know, a human can open the door, walk into it and the pet has plenty of room.

Okay. Thank you. You mentioned you have a lot of experience because you have a number of facilities. How many facilities do you have?

We now have over our, we have 83 city vet locations in 12 states right now. As I mentioned, we have two open here in the Orlando area, one in Lake Nona, one up in Castleberry. We actually have another one under construction further south on Highway 27 down in Davenport. Okay. And this would be our fourth location here in the Orlando, greater Orlando area.

Great. Thank you.

Can I ask one question? Go ahead. It just piqued my curiosity. You mentioned that if the animal, the pet has to stay overnight because of complications from surgery, that at some point they are left there alone. What if that animal goes into distress from the time that the last staff person goes home to the time that you open up at 7 o'clock in the morning? Does the owner have any type of way of visually seeing their pet to know if the pet is okay during the night? I mean, what happens if there's an emergency and no one's there and then you get there and there's some complications that no one was there to attend?

Um, okay. Great question. First off, I don't, I'm almost positive our staff would not leave any pet that was not stable. Um, I even know I, I, I, if it are our Lake Nona clinic actually on the bottom of our door has. has recommendations for the nearest emergency clinic because that clinic does not do urgent care so so yeah I'm almost positive that that none of the staff would would leave if we had an animal that was not stable and then would transfer them to a hospital that would be able to provide them the proper monitoring and observation if necessary. And we actually have a couple of hospitals like that. We don't have one here in the Orlando area. Our hospital brand is called Arista. We have one of those in Dallas, Atlanta, and we've got one that's about ready to open in Jacksonville.

Okay. So that explains that, I mean, I would think that a staff would not leave if an animal is in distress. But I'm saying anything could happen. Things could happen an hour later, two hours. Something happens to that animal during that time when there's no one there. That was my concern. Not that a staff would leave and a patient was not stable. But what happens when there's no one there and the animal may go into distress? How does the... that the staff, the owner knows that their pet is now in distress and there's no one at the facility.

Is there a way to monitor it? As far as I'm aware, I've not heard of any incidents where we've lost a pet due to overnight care.

All right. Any other questions? All right. Hearing none, I will entertain a motion.

I would like to send a motion of resolution. 2, 0, 2, 6, dash, 0, 2, 1, R. For the city that conditional use permit, do I have a 2nd.

2nd, the motion in the 2nd, all in favor. All right. And the chair votes. I, it's unanimous.

Thank you very much.

Thank you very much commissioners.

All right, we will move on to item number two when staff is ready.

Good evening, planning and zoning commissioners and guests. Justine Day with Development Services. At the direction of the city manager's office and city council, staff is proposing an amendment to the land development codes in order to provide for lighting standards within the city limits. Land development code sections 24-12 and 115-12 provided regulations for lighting to illuminate properties without subjecting adjacent properties to unnecessary and unreasonable reflection or glare. However, these sections of the code do not provide standards to measure by or enforce when reviewing development applications. The proposed amendment would repeal these sections of the code and replace them with a new chapter that would then establish enforceable standards for outdoor lighting. The new chapter would be created to align the city's outdoor lighting regulations with modern model standards published by Dark Sky International and the Illuminating Engineering Society, while Resolution 2026-002R would help implement the standards set forth in Section 129-4D of the new chapter. If the amendment is approved, the city would provide for a phased implementation and retrofit plan to bring all new and existing non-conforming city-owned and city-leased outdoor lighting fixtures into compliance with the new chapter by no later than September 1, 2031, subject to coordination with Duke Energy and other applicable utility providers. The city manager or designee shall conduct an inventory of all city-owned and or leased outdoor lighting fixtures within 12 months of the effective date and shall provide annual updates to the city council until compliance is achieved. Any other existing non-conforming outdoor lighting shall be brought into compliance with this chapter no later than the earlier of when the fixture is replaced, removed, or substantially modified, or by September 1st, 2036. This would be applicable to all new outdoor lighting installations and all replacement of existing outdoor lighting fixtures within the corporate limits of the City of Claremont, including residential, commercial, industrial, institutional, and municipal installations. except as expressly exempted within the proposed regulations. The proposed amendment in order to fully support the dark sky initiative and minimize glare, reduce light trespass, and lessen pollution of the night sky would be applicable to all properties within the city limits. With this amendment, there would be a cost to upgrade and replace the fixtures, which is unknown at this moment. The potential savings would be long-term electricity consumption. Both the proposed new chapter and the resolution to the code would help provide consistency with the submittal regulations within the land development codes and is consistent with the city's comprehensive plan. Staff recommends approval of ordinance number 2026-025 and resolution number 2026-022R. This concludes staff presentation.

All right. Thank you very much. At this time, I'll open up the floor for public comment. If anyone present would like to comment on this. All right, hearing none, I will bring it back to the commission. And I will start to my left with Commissioner Ansuo. Thank you, Chair.

Honestly, I love this. I'm glad that was something we're finally taking a look at. I know a long, long time ago, it was more of just an idea. And I'm glad to see that city manager's office, the council and staff are taking a look at this.

So I don't have any really burning questions for it. Thank you commissioner Nemec. Thank you, Mister chairman. Yeah, I read through majority thoroughly tried to pick it, but I got my hats off to staff for doing an excellent job on this once again, like my fellow commissioner Kramer said, I mean, this is long overdue. Thank you.

Thank you, Commissioner Cramer. Thank you, Chair.

Just a couple, you guys know I'm so excited about this because I'll remind you that my neighborhood is the first neighborhood, the older neighborhood, to completely convert to dark sky. So I feel like we're kind of leading the way of where I'm at and that you guys are catching up to that. So I'm really excited. So I went through this pretty thoroughly and to the point where my eyes are a little bit blurry. So I'm going to ask a couple of questions just because I want to help you guys get this right. So my first question was, and this is a little tiny one, but section 129.4C, I didn't mean to find that. So 4C talks about light trespass, and it talks about vertical and horizontal, whichever is greater. So I won't read all the details of it, but it talks about foot candle measurement at the property line, vertical or horizontal. And then it goes on to talk about later on in... g2 it talks about a finished grade ground level with the light registering portion of the meter held parallel to the ground and pointing upwards so that's how we measure horizontally but i never saw a standard in here for how we measure vertically so it's a little tiny thing but we talk about how we're going to measure horizontally and vertically and and i didn't see vertically addressing there so i'm just pointing that out to you um And then, and Justina did a great job referencing Dark Sky International and IES model standards. And those are the technical guidance documents that you guys use to establish the numerical thresholds. I see that. But I want to make sure that those challenges are not challenged in the future. So my question is, The ordinance repeatedly states that the standards are consistent with Dark Sky International and the Illuminating Engineering Society, but the ordinance does not identify which model ordinance, publication, edition, or technical guidance document report that supports those specific numbers. So just a little more specificity. You reference the document, but you don't reference where you got that.

We can add that into it.

It's an easy add, but I think later on you'll find that if somebody challenges this, that having that specificity will help you.

Can you guys hear me? This is the city attorney.

Yes, we can hear you. The city attorney is on the phone.

Yeah, could I just jump in on that point, Commissioner? Sure. This is obviously a very technical, detailed ordinance in front of you with a lot of proper nouns. And that's one of the things we struggled with in the city attorney's office, actually. And that's because the original thought was to actually kind of defer and incorporate the Dark Sky International ordinance. standards in other words not to have the actual numbers in our own ordinance but just to kind of almost outsource it to dark sky international and i made the decision in drafting not to do that in other words i think you as the city of claremont should be able to choose your own numbers you know and because we don't know necessarily when dark sky international is going to change their standards

so i didn't want to just defer those decisions to them i don't know if this helps you at all with kind of how you're looking at what you just said but that is the basis for why some of it's worded the way it is thank you counselor that really actually that really does help because it's it was me worrying about your comfort level how you can hold this how you can defend this in the future but if you're comfortable with it i am as well okay uh to And then in section 1296 D all new outdoor lighting installation subject to this chapter Sean corporate adaptive controls and I just want to be clear does that include single-family homes for the adaptive controls I saw in the very next statement that said that it would like landscape lighting on residential units to turn off at 11 but Is that asking people to turn off their porch lights and things like that? It was vague to me.

It would include for both commercial and residential. It would be for any outdoor lighting fixture. So if that's the porch light. The landscaping does have a section in, I believe, the exemptions as well, where it talks about certain lumens. They just have to shield and make sure it's not visible from the other property lines. So that's something that we can look at if you think it's a little bit too much. But it would be for both residential and commercial.

I see that a lot of this looks and feels a lot like what Groveland has done. And I've been over in Groveland. I've seen that they even on new facilities where you're building a porch and you've got your porch light, they actually have a small cup coming down to block that light, which they had to actually go figure out how to address the new standard in their area. So... Luckily, they've worked through a lot of these problems before us.

I'll jump in on that one, too. So there are some similarities in this draft to Groveland. It's definitely not a word for word. I don't even think it's. it's 50 percent but there are some things that are oh i've been told that i can speak quieter okay so um there are some things that are similar or identical to the gremlin ordinance and part of the reason for that is dark sky international has model ordinances and laws that they want people to adopt so some of those have been adopted liberally thank you um

That's all the questions I have, Chair.

All right. Thank you very much.

Commissioner Hoisington.

Thank you. I would also like to commend staff for all the work that you put into this. I am a process person, a timeline person, so I appreciate it seeing that you have your process of how you're going to identify, you have your timeline of when things are going to be done, and I appreciate that. So congratulations for moving this forward because I know it's been a long time needed and coming.

Thank you.

Great. Thank you. Yeah, I'd also... I'd like to thank the city manager, the city council, and staff for a great effort here. I think this is going to make a big difference in our community, so thank you very much. At this time, I will entertain a motion on item number two.

Chair, I'd like to make a motion that we approve ordinance 2026-025 and resolution 2026-022R, dark sky land development code amendment.

Second.

So we're, I'm sorry, we're doing 025, which is just the 025. 025, I'm sorry. 025, we'll do them individually. I'm assuming. I'm sorry. Council, we need individual motions. You're right. Yes, there are two different items on our agenda.

I'll amend my motion. I'd like to make a motion that we approve Ordinance 2026-025, Dark Sky Land Development Code Amendment.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. And chair votes aye. That's also unanimous. Thank you. All right. We will move to item number three.

Resolution.

Oh, I am sorry. Now I will make a resolution. Now I'll make a motion.

Right, right, right, right. To approve ordinance 2026-022R under the Dark Sky Land Development Code Amendment.

Okay, so we have a motion for the resolution.

For the resolution.

Do we have a second for the resolution?

Second.

Motion and second, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Chair votes aye. Okay, we will move to item number three.

Good evening Planning and Zoning Commissioners and guests, Nick Gonzalez, Development Services. This is agenda item number three, Land Development Code amendments surrounding property notifications. At the direction of the City Manager's Office and City Council, staff is proposing an amendment to the noticing requirements for certain land use and development applications. Currently, the requirements are for public notices to be mailed to all adjoining property owners within 150 feet of the subject property. There are several sections in the code that address this 100-foot requirement. In an effort to enhance public awareness and participation, along with keeping surrounding property owners and stakeholders informed, an increase in the written notification requirement is being proposed at a distance of 450 feet. This is a 200% increase in the written notification requirements. No changes are being proposed to the existing newspaper publications or the posting of signage on the subject property. the applications that would be affected by this include conditional use permits variances rezonings future land use map amendments and live local act projects in addition if any property within the 450 foot radius of the subject property is governed by a property owners association such as a condominium association or homeowners association notice shall also be provided to such association This language is also being added to better inform the community of the proposed land use changes that may impact their properties and or communities. Staff recommends approval of these proposed changes contained within ordinance number 2026-026, since it finds that it will be in the best interest of public and citizens of Claremont. That concludes staff's presentation.

All right, thank you very much. I'll open it up for a public comment. Would anyone like to speak on this? Please come to the podium, state your name and address.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Brian Bain from the Claremont City Council, seat two. Just am here. Because I think it's important as someone who sat up there before, when a council member is involved working with staff on an ordinance, that that council member come here and let you know why they are working with staff on that and the rationale behind the proposal. And so that's what I'm doing here today. I'm letting you know that as someone who sat up there on PNZ for two years, as someone who's now been on council since November, We've heard it, you've heard it from residents that the radius that we currently use to go out is pretty minimal. And it literally could mean one, two, five houses that get notified in a neighborhood. And so in working with staff, what I understand from the mapping software that is used, that if you plug in a number, it can automatically do that for you. So there's no manual process. Because initially, I had suggested that if any house in any neighborhood was included, that the entire neighborhood get included. And then it became a, well, what if we... Because now we have to manually go through and figure out which houses are all in that neighborhood. If we miss one, that puts a big responsibility on the city for missing that house. And so we then determined... how could we do this with a radius that actually made an actual positive net effect? And so we looked at 450 feet, which is a 200% increase from what we currently are doing at 150 feet. Now, staff policy or their practice is that they actually go an additional 50 feet. So with this, if you approve as a recommendation to the city council and the city council then approves, would actually get notification out to 500 feet of a neighborhood surrounding a project. In addition to that, what we did include also as language is to say that if any parcel in that radius is in an HOA or a condo association, then notification must also go to that homeowners association or condo association. So that then kind of allowed for additional notification for folks in that neighborhood, putting some responsibility on the homeowners association or the condos association to notify their members of a project that's taking place nearby their residences. So we added that language in here. And I'll also say that in doing this and working with staff, I learned that notification does also go to the Lake County Schools and the Board of County Commissioners. And so there's quite a bit of notification then that would go out from this. So I think it is a good effort for us to respond to the concerns we hear from our residents. and also address the transparency and engagement that we all strive to increase and have in our city. And I'll answer any questions you might have. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Is there anyone else in the public who would like to comment on this? All right. Hearing none, I will bring it back to the commission for any comments or questions. Start with you, Commissioner Hoisington.

I'm sorry. I'm glad to see that this has taken place. I just had the one question. Why not 500 feet? But I'm glad to hear that you already do the additional 50. So I'm good. Thank you.

Commissioner Kramer, I look for typos. I look for lack of clarity. This looks like good policy. Like Mr. Bain said, this is something we've needed for a while. And those of us sat up here for any length of time realized that we were excluding a good number of our citizens from being notified. So I look very favorably on this. I don't have any red lines or yellow lines or anything to nitpick. So thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Nemec.

Yes, I have an obvious question. It's directed to Councilman Baines.

I think it's just Baine without an S on the end. I think it's just Baine.

I know him well enough I can call him bangs.

I don't think people want two of me around here.

This is the first time ever at a planning and zoning meeting I ever saw a councilman come up to the podium as a public speaker. So could you explain to me, I mean, are you part of the architect to this? Could you, for clarification?

Yeah, so right after the election last November, I met with all the department heads, and one of the department heads was Mr. Henschel. And I brought up to he and his team that I would like to move forward with some revisions to this notification policy. And it took some time to understand all the ramifications and the nuances of how that process works and who pays for it and how it goes through the process and everything. And after lots of back and forth, we settled on the number that we could both agree to. And then staff took it from there, working with the city attorney to actually revise the language and actually bring you the ordinance change that's in front of you today.

I'd like to say thank you for most of the residents in my area for accomplishing this task. I mean, questions were always asked to me over the past seven years. How come they only go out to 150 feet? And I said, well, they're being lenient. They go to 200. It all depends on the community. And thank you again for putting the language in that it has to go directly to if it's a gated community to HOAs or to condominiums and so on. Thank you, Mr. Baines.

Thank you. Commissioner Ansua. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you for bringing this up, Council Member Baines. Baines. Baines. You got me saying it now. We need to say people's names right around here.

You're right. We did talk. Yeah, you're right.

The only question that I do actually have is more for staff, and I think it's more just for my own edification. For the code enforcement, is there a reason why it's not included in this amendment? I just noticed that that's the only one that's not affected, but I wasn't sure if there's a reason why.

Do we send notification?

Yeah. I don't believe they don't. They don't.

Oh, we don't send notification for some cases. Yeah.

Okay.

They just give you, okay. They just go to you. That's just to the, just for the property. Okay. Gotcha. Okay.

Okay. Okay. That makes more sense. Thank you for that. That's the only thing I had. Great job guys. Good process.

All right, I love everything about this. However, I do have a question about that extra 50 feet. Is that like a best practice or is that an actual policy within your office, Kurt? Could you just explain that extra 50 feet?

That's a best practice that our department does just to make sure that we cover.

My only concern here is that we do the extra 50 feet because Kurt's a great guy and does the right thing and goes the little extra. However, I would feel more comfortable if we had something that said 500 feet. And so do you understand my concern?

I do. Here's the issue. If we say 450, you have two parcels that meet at a corner here, and that radius is right here. We're going to err on the side of caution and catch that extra 50 feet. So if we...

If you're 500, you're saving.

500, we're going to do 550. Yeah, we're always going to go bigger because we don't want to miss a property by inches. So we're going to err on the side of caution. We've always done that. It's always worked for us. No one's come back to ever said, hey, I was not in this 150 feet. We're just erring on the side of caution there. So whatever the number is, we're always going to go bigger. Okay. Just to make sure we capture that.

And that's relying on the great people that we have working in your department today.

So far that I know, it's been working for 24 years. Okay. I expect it to continue on, but yeah, I mean...

Okay. All right. That was just my, I mean, it's a best practice. I appreciate that you're going to 500. I'm just looking 10 years, 20 years down the line.

Well, good luck if they get caught with missing a piece of property by a couple of inches and it could throw the whole ordinance off. Whatever we're advertising, it could just throw it off and it could be repealed and we're not going to have that.

Okay.

That was the only concern, but it is a huge improvement from what we had before, so thank you for taking the time to do that. Any other questions from any commissioner?

All right, this time I will entertain a motion. I'd like to set a motion for ordinance 2026, a motion of approval for ordinance 2026-026, surrounding property notifications, dash 450 feet, land development code amendment.

All right, we have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. All in favor?

Aye. And the chair votes aye. That's also unanimous.

All right. Any other business? Staff, do you have any other business? All right. Can I have a motion to adjourn?

Motion and second.

We are adjourned. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.