Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Evening, everyone, and welcome to the January 23 meeting of the City of Clovis Planning Commission. Members of the public are encouraged to participate in meetings by accessing the and listening to the webcast on the city's website, providing written comment at the same website, or coming to the planning commission meeting in person. I'd like to call this meeting to order. If you'll join me in our flag salute, commissioner Hinkle will be leading this. Commission secretary, call for roll.

Commissioner Betzaid?

Here.

Commissioner Hatcher?

Here.

Commissioner Hinkle?

Here.

Chair Antuna?

Here.

And commissioner Abert is absent today.

Very good. If we could call, approval for approval for the minutes of the 12/19/2024 planning commission meeting.

I'll make a motion.

I'll second.

I have a motion from Commissioner Hatcher and a second from Commissioner Redstead to approve the minutes from the December 2024 meeting. Commissioner Hatcher? Yes. Commissioner Redstead?

Yes.

Commissioner Hinkle? Yes. And Chair Antuna?

Yes.

Minutes were approved.

Do we have any comments from the Commission Secretary?

Yes, we do. Erinn will have some comments here, but I first wanted to formally introduce Erinn Lammatina to the Planning Commission. I know most of you probably already know him well. Errand will be our official PC clerk and will be taking over the Planning Commission Secretary duties moving forward. So he'll be here with you every month. So we're excited to have him on board. So I think it's all yours.

Thank you for that, George. I appreciate it. I do have some secretary comments for my first meeting. Real quick, there have been four public comments submitted to you guys. They should be available to you regarding the item that we have on our agenda tonight. Also, the February meeting has been canceled. We didn't have any items, so we're gonna go ahead and cancel that and just we have our March meeting still scheduled. And in related to our meetings, just as a reminder, the memo for the 2025 meeting schedule has the April date incorrect. I think George brought it up maybe last month or two months ago, but it's actually on the April 17, not the fourth Thursday. And then lastly, if any of

you guys are interested, I'm

gonna also reach out to commissioner Hebert to attend the Planning Commission Academy. The dates for that are gonna be March 5 through the seventh. That's gonna be a Wednesday to a Friday. It's being held in Santa Rosa. If you could let me know by next Friday, that would be helpful so I can get you guys registered. That's it. Thank you.

Very good. Are there any comments from the panning commission members?

Yes. If we could, I'd like to take a moment of silence for all those in Los Angeles that have lost their homes and have died in the fires, if I may. Thank you.

Very good. Moving on. The Planning Commission will now hear public comments. This is an opportunity for the members of the public to address the Planning Commission on any matter within the Planning Commission jurisdiction that is not listed on the agenda. And in order for everyone to be heard, we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes.

Anyone wishing to be placed on the agenda for a specific topic should contact the Planning Division and submit your correspondence at least ten days prior to the desired date of appearance. Do we have any comments from the floor that are not related to the item we're hearing today? Okay. Hearing none, we're gonna go ahead and move on now to our public hearing. But, actually, before we move on, I did wanna make this note on the announcement.

I appreciate everyone who's here. And just as a practicality, I'm gonna go over how we run our meetings. Please note that after staff makes the presentation on each item, the applicant will be invited to address the commission, including answering any questions from the commission. Then the commission will invite those wishing to speak in favor of the project to provide comments followed by those who are opposed to the project. All testimony in favor and in opposition will be limited to three minutes per person, and a timer is located on that wall there in the rear.

Okay. Gonna go ahead and read in our item for this evening. Consider approval of resolution 25 CUP one ninety five dash zero zero nine a four adopting a class 32 categorical exemption from further environmental review under CEQA and to approve a conditional use permit amendment for an addition of a new two story classroom building and basketball court with an increase of student capacity to 414 students for the Valley Crescent School located at four I'm sorry, at 547 West Neese Avenue, Muslim Society of Central California owner, Michael Eastman, applicant and representative. Our staff presenting today is Marissa Parker, assistant planner.

Good evening, commissioners. This item is associated with the subject property on the screen highlighted in red. It is located North Of Meese Avenue between Peach And Willow Avenues here in the city of Clovis. It has a planned land use of low density residential, and it is zoned r one seventy five hundred, which is one of our single family residential zone districts. Private schools are allowed to operate residential properties with an approved conditional use permit per our code, and the site is just under two and a half acres.

So a little bit of history on the site. Back in 1995, the original conditional use permit was approved to allow the operation of a daycare facility. And about nine years later, Valley Crescent School came in and received approval for an amendment to that CUP to operate their private school in addition to the day care. A year later, they came back with a second amendment to make some modifications to the site to include a play structure and also, amend the hours. And at this time, the day care facility was no longer in use.

It was just a private school. And in 02/2008, they received approvals to install two modular buildings and then also to increase their enrollment. And tonight, we are here with the Fourth Amendment, which is proposing some site modifications and then an increase of enrollment as well. So on the screen, you will find the site plan associated with the CUP that consists of the existing 5,200 square foot classroom building, the two modular buildings located to the west of the site, and a playground space with a shade structure. Those are all highlighted in blue.

You will also find the proposed 12,500 square foot two story classroom building highlighted in red along with the proposed basketball court. I did want to bring up some of the setbacks. So the basketball court is located 27 feet five inches from the eastern property line. Initially, when staff saw this proposal, there were some potential concerns due to noise. So the applicant was required, to have a noise study prepared.

And the conclusion of that noise study indicated that the increase of students, which we'll get into in a few slides, along with the basketball court would not raise the noise levels higher than what our residential noise ordinance allows. You will also find that the two story building is located 91 feet six inches from that eastern property line and 54 feet from the western property line, as well as the basketball court is about a 160 feet from the rear property line, and the classroom building building is about a 140 feet. These are important to note because since it

is

zoned residential, the rear setbacks are 20 feet and the sides are five feet. So they are exceeding, all of our required setbacks based on the zoning. Additionally, staff will be working with the applicant through the site plan review process regarding the the building itself, the classroom building. Originally, it was proposed at 36 feet eight inches, but our residential standards require no higher than 35 feet, which is consistent with the zone district here and the surrounding neighborhoods as well. As it relates to parking and circulation, the site does have 31 parking spaces, and our code requires private schools to provide one parking space for each faculty and staff member.

Correspondence with the applicant has confirmed that even at full capacity at the end of their growth phase, they would only have a maximum of 26 staff members. So the existing parking is sufficient. There is one access point into the site from Meese Avenue highlighted in red, and cars traverse through the site as shown on the screen to drop off or pick up their kids and then exit onto Neese as well. There are capabilities for drop off and pick up on Neese Avenue, which is consistent with the other schools in the general area. Due to the increase in students, the applicant was required to prepare a traffic impact analysis, which showed that the increase in students will not cause impacts to Knees Avenue and that they will or knees will continue to operate at an acceptable level and no other modifications to the site or to knees were required.

Those are the findings of the study. And I would also like to mention that Sylmar Avenue access is restricted. The previous conditional use permits were conditioned that no drop off or pickup or parking associated with the school is allowed on Sylmar Avenue, this condition has been carried over to this CUP. It is condition number nine, and the applicant will be required to adhere to that condition. So as it relates to the enrollment, the applicant's goal is to reach full capacity of the site over the next seven years incrementally.

Currently, with CUP nineteen ninety five-9A2, they are allowed to have a maximum number of 174 students. They are proposing to increase that by 240 students for a total of four fourteen. Additionally, the applicant is looking to expand the hours of operation. That second amendment to the CUP allows them to operate from 07:30AM to 03:30PM, Monday through Friday, and from 9AM to 1PM on the weekends. With the CUP, the applicant is requesting to operate 7AM to 5PM on the weekdays, to allow for staff preparation, staff meetings, and after school programs or sports.

And then the weekends, will remain only from 9AM to 1PM. As Erin mentioned earlier, we did provide you a memo on the dais with the four opposition letters that staff has received over the past couple of days. Some of the concerns listed in there are regarding noise due to the increase in students in the basketball court, concerns with the traffic levels along Knees And Sylmar, thus leading to some public safety concerns and then also privacy with the proposed building and then a lack of community engagement from the applicant. And as you know, with the CUP there are certain findings that staff needs to be able to make that are listed in the staff report. But staff was able to make these findings as the growth for the school will happen incrementally over the next seven years.

The traffic study indicated that there are no impacts to Meath Avenue and the general circulation pattern and traffic flow will not be impacted. And additionally, the site is physically suitable for this proposed project, and we received no opposing comments from any of our internal agency internal departments or external agencies. So with that being said, staff recommends that the Planning Commission approve Conditional Use Permit nineteen ninety five-nine A four subject to the conditions of approval. Thank you. And I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Are there any questions for staff from the commission?

Yes. I have a couple of questions. You mentioned that the internal departments didn't have any concerns, but you gave us the history of the CUPs. Have there been any complaints that have occurred historically that we're aware of? Anything that was in, I guess, noncompliance with the conditions of approval or just any other issues with the operations where PD, others had to respond to address concerns associated with the school?

No. We did not receive any comments from fire or PD regarding this site. They I asked them if they had anything again separately after our formal routing, and they did not offer any feedback.

Okay. Thank you.

Any further questions for staff at this time? Is the applicant present here? If you can speak can step up to the podium if you'd like to speak on behalf of your project. Yeah. Go ahead. The mic either should a little button there.

Oh, gotcha.

There you go.

Alright. Good evening, everybody. Commission, thank you for taking the time out of your busy week to be here and listen to our project.

Now I'm

sorry to interrupt you. If you yes. I was gonna say if you couldn't give us your name and address. Thank you.

Yeah. So I'm doctor Omar Chaudhry. I'm an anesthesiologist at Clovis Community. I'm also a board member on the Valley Crescent School Board. I have a master's in education as well. I am a product of Fresno, California. And so I wanna begin there and say that when I grew up here, it's all this farmland. And so times have changed. Right? The population continues to grow.

And the school itself, the needs have changed since 02/2005. We're talking about twenty years ago. So I myself live right behind Maple Creek Elementary School. Every day from 08:00 when school bell rings, there's, you know, kids playing, you know, and then and you have school activities. You have carnivals.

You have all kinds of events. So I understand the concerns about noise, and I totally respect them. As a school, we try to do a solid job of being very cautious about the hours of day, the time of day. There used to be a piece of parcel next adjacent to the school. It is now filled with double story, Garrett McDonald homes that are 4,000 square feet abutting the school campus, where the second story has a balcony overlooking the school, where people just look into the school grounds.

Now I saw some of the concerns they had about a double story building. But, again, these double store double story Gary McDonald homes run along the West Side, so they would be obstructing as much as any other double story building would. And as you saw from the plans, this is offset from the concerned residents

on the East Side.

And so in terms of shadows and overlooking pool parties, I'm pretty sure that won't be a issue, especially because the school's out for the summer. The other concerns about noise, again, you know, it is a school. It's been a school for twenty plus years. I understand it's tough. You know, Garfield Elementary is on one side.

The school's here. Altus here is on as well around the corner. It's we live in the city, you know, and and having kids playing, I know it can be stressful to some. But, you know, like I said, I live next Maple Creek Elementary, and to me, it's pleasant. I I you know, just hearing the kids play, it feels like, you know, it's just part of the day. The other concerns were property values. Again, this is an upgrade to the school, and it's about the students. This campus is twenty years old. Times have changed. Technology has changed.

We're trying to improve the education delivered to these students because they will be products of the Clovis High School system. Buchanan, Clovis West, Clovis North, that's where most of our students go. We want to provide the highest quality of students that enter our school system, our high schools, right? Products of Clovis Unified that come back and serve our community. So I want to like, I understand we're it can be a nuisance to hear kids playing.

It can be a concern about property values. But the changes that we're offering is going to be better for the community in the long run. It's going to be better for the students. It's going be better for the neighbors and everybody. I understand the concept of community engagement, and that's one very important thing we actually teach the students.

We teach them about volunteering and helping out. And, again, if there's any issues, again, most of it is noise that I've seen. Nothing about trashing the neighborhoods or anything like that. There's a steel fence that goes along Sylmar Avenue, so there is no possible drop off. And I know that was one of the concerns. You have to enter through the gate on East Avenue. You are not able to drop off or pick up anywhere else. So, you know, So I understand that concern as well.

School

events, they happen. We have a carnival once a year. We have a culture day where we celebrate cultures of the world, including, you know, countries in Europe and Asia, Africa, South America,

Latin America. So,

you know, it's a school, and I appreciate everyone's concerns. I hear you. Like I said, I live right next to a school. It comes with the territory. Thank you.

Do we have any questions from the commission for the applicant?

Yes. Doctor. Chaudhry, I just wanted to ask, were you or the board or the administration, did you have a chance to reach out to the surrounding neighbors to have discussion about your plans for expansion prior to being here? So to be honest, no, we did not.

We we do have an open door policy. And if if there were any you know, if if neighbors wanted to come by the campus and talk things over, but we ourselves have not gone around the neighborhoods or anything to, you know, share plans for this new building that, you know, is essential.

You know, we we just need

space for science lab, a computer lab. We don't have any of that right now.

Thank you. Thank you.

Any further questions from the applicant? Thank you very much, Doctor. You can take some time.

Thank you for having me.

Okay. So we're gonna go ahead and move on and open the public session. And at this time, I'd like to invite anyone who would like to speak in favor of this project to please step up to the microphone, state your name and address for the record. And I will remind everyone three minutes is your limit. Thank you.

Good evening. My name is Mohammed Ashraf. I'm a cardiologist by profession, and I'm the chairman of the board of Valley Crescent since the Valley Crescent started. So I've been involved right from the beginning. I was involved when we got the CUP in '19 you know, in in twenty years ago. And we have tried to follow all the rules. Basically, like doctor Omar has mentioned, that we want the school to be better. At this particular time, we don't have a science lab. We don't have a computer lab. We don't have a staff lounge where staff can sit in their free time.

So most of these rooms will be used to back to the school. Number of students, you know, we have raised from 75 students to 162 students right now in twenty years. I don't expect students number to go up to four fourteen, in maybe, I don't know, how many years. So that's the main purpose. That's number one.

I want to make sure that people understand that this is to improve the education. Clovis is known for education. And the reason we moved the school to Clovis we were not in Clovis at the beginning. We were somewhere else. We came to Clovis just to improve because it's a better school district for for people.

And lot of people, other student parents, some of them moved from other states to buy houses in Clovis, and they all live in the area. If I could show you the map, most of the 75 to 80% students come from Clovis over there. So this is very important, to have a school here. We could have moved out. We could have decided, you know, let's go out, buy 10 acres of land or something else.

But this is such a good location for us. It has been great. We have two buses who bring students from even from Clovis because we want to make it easier for the parents. And we're willing to do anything to make it easier for our neighbors. Neighbors are very important for us. If they have any concerns, we want to address them. As chairman of board, I'll make sure I it's my mistake, our mistake, that we did not have meetings. I kind of did not think about it. You know? We get busy sometimes and don't think right.

So we will plan to have meetings with the neighbors. If there's any concerns they have, we will address it. I I promise you that. And as the time comes, you know, there's a planning commission next to the city council. So in between time, we have some time In noise level, you know, due to traffic, whatever we can do, we will do it.

I reassure I to my neighbors on the school, and I I we have met them. Most of the neighbors, I've met them before, but lately, we have not and, you know, got busy or whatever. So I just want to make sure, reassure the board, the missionaries, and the neighbors. And now our parents will bring kids over here. Then we will do everything to make it better. Because we are we want to stay in close. We don't want to move anywhere else.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this project?

Yeah. Hi. This is Mohammed Fahadshaykh. I'm a software engineer. I work remotely for a Silicon Valley company DoorDash. I'm actually one of the parents. I have five children. Three of them go to Valley Crescent. One is in fifth grade, the other was second grade, or maybe third grade third grade, and then the other one's kindergarten. I have two other kids who will hopefully, you know, go to that school as well. And not just to me, but my younger brother, he's 20 now. He just got married recently, and he also went to Valley Crescent, and he's successful. He went he's becoming a doctor. He just got admission to medical school. So the school is doing great with the limited resources that they have.

But as my kids grow older and I'm all in favor for them to, you know, add more facilities and more opportunities in school. Recently, they started soccer and stuff like that. So there's a lot of opportunity the school is able to provide with such a limited area. But, you know, helping that school by adding these extra facilities on sent, like a proper computer lab, etcetera, will be fantastic for my kids. And my brother's kids, he also has has a fifth kid coming along the way, and they all go to that school.

But I myself live right in that community, that Gary McDonald homes. Not that, but just within that same community down to me. We live there, and every single day, I drop off my kids in the morning at eight. I've been like, my brother, he went to Buchanan. I've seen other schools house large lineups they have in the morning. This school doesn't have that because we just don't have that many students. So despite being in morning rush and everybody's lining up to get into school, that the lines are not that long. I I get there at eight and I'm able to go right into the school grounds, drop off my kids, and leave. Not a problem. And same thing during pickup time. It's pretty quick because, again, there's this limited number of students because of capacity. I would

have loved to buy one of

those Gary McDonald homes to see my kids playing in the backyard. I would have absolutely no problem with that. But yeah. So I'm a parent, and this school has done great for my brother, my kids, and I wish for the future success.

Thank you. Do we have someone else speaking in favor?

Thank you.

My name is Monica Kandel Rahim, and I'm also a parent at Valley Crescent School. As you all saw with the history of the CUPs, the school has been around for several decades in the Clovis community and is a pillar of that community of the community. We actually recently moved to the area because of Valley Crescent School. It's important to us to have a school environment that's god centered and in a safe and moral environment, and Valley Crescent offers that for our children. It's located along these, which I understand is zone residential, but has several commercial pockets already in place.

And we are happy and willing to work with neighbors as needed to make sure that we're abiding by all regulations in the new CUP. And I think we saw even changes to the already proposed documents based on feedback from the city. So we're we're open to feedback and and willing to work with it.

Greetings and blessings. My name is doctor Anwar Ibrahim. I'm a doctor of naturopathy, board certified holistic health practitioner, and a BA in psychology. I live, actually in the neighborhood. I'm across the street from Knees. My backyard is the brick wall, so it's very close to the to the campus or the school. My kids at one point did attend there. It's a growing school. I mean, a lot of these children have went on to go to the UCs and big universities, became doctors and important people in our communities. I'm also a Fresno native. I've lived next to elementary schools most of my life. You know, like, the kids play. There's noise. That's about it. I mean, I it's kinda refreshing sometimes to hear kids playing outside laughing and running around and giggling.

I like that. It feels nice. I mean, I remember growing up or even taking my kids to school and hearing the school bell ringing from our house. You know? So this this is something that we're not doing here at this location. I mean, the noise would be no different than any other school, which is on every corner of our neighborhood. Right? We have Garfield Elementary. The overflow is so big that the people pick up their kids from the LDS Church right next to it. Down the street, there's Mountain View, and I was next to Maple Creek. So, like, the traffic or the school environment, it's part of our community. It's part of what we have in our Clovis area. Everywhere you look, there's elementary schools. That's what makes Clovis what it is. So my my my intention here is just to put those points out.

I mean, they already pointed out, but the McDonald homes, when they went up, they're huge. I mean, the dirt two story houses, some of them can see my backyard from across the street. So as far as building a two story building and the zoning, I don't think that should be an issue as long as they're following the city ordinances, keeping everything according to the specs of the city. And there's already two story houses, huge two story houses right next to the Valley Christian School. So as far as an argument for that, I don't see that an issue. I really don't, and that's my input. I just think it's just like any other school in the neighborhood. It's never been too loud. I've never seen any issues, and the noise would be just like any other elementary that's all around us. So that's my that's my input for tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have someone else who'd like to speak in favor of this project?

Good evening. I'm doctor Sheikh. I'm internal medicine doctor that works in the Clovis, Fresno area. I graduated from Buchanan, and my entire family lives pretty much around the Buchanan complex, very close to Valley Crescent School. And as everyone said, doctor Chauvet, doctor Underwired and stuff earlier is yeah. Clovis is there's a school, like, I don't know, every 30 feet or something like that to not hear children or to hit that traffic or have to go 25 miles an hour in that morning and make sure there's no cops around right is super common. I think we've all seen it all the time. You can't miss it in Clovis. And same thing with Valley Crescent School. My brother alluded to earlier where the traffic actually for the school isn't that bad.

We have about a 170 students or so. We drop kids off inside the premises. It's pretty much walled off. Otherwise, we're not as far as traffic goes, we're not bothering anybody. And as far as and and everyone's pointing out at this point, I'm it's a broken record almost. But, yeah, there's already two story homes mass that they were constructed about a year or two right along its, you know, kind of west wall. And so I'm also hoping I have four kids, three of which currently attend the school, the youngest in preschool, the oldest in fourth grade. And I'm hoping the same. Again, you know, computer lab, having better, you know, equipment or facilities for even the staff would go a long way towards making the school a better place. And that's what I hope for.

Like like doctor Chauldre said earlier is these students will eventually join kind of the Clovis Unified School District in high school, typically. And I'm hoping that they come there and they show kind of skills and what they've learned. And I think upgrading the school or bringing it back into, you know, 2025 now will go a long way towards that. Thank you.

Thank you. There anyone else who would like to speak in favor of this project?

Okay.

Seeing none, then we will move on to allow anyone who would like to speak in opposition of this project. If you would step up to the microphone, state your name and address for the record. Thank you.

Madam chair, members of the commission, my name is Todd Valeri. I live at 512 West Lexington Avenue. My property is immediately adjacent to the east of LA Crescent School where I've lived since 1997. So I've been there for twenty seven years and my experience goes back to when the CUP first came into play. If memory serves me correctly, it was initially rejected by the Planning Commission.

There was significant engagement from the school and family from the school. They knocked on my door, came in my home, had great conversations, and got certain commitments of what the school would be and how what I could expect with them as a neighbor. And for the most part, they've been a good neighbor. And I ended up actually speaking before the city council in favor of the school as it was envisioned at that point in time. And I'm glad I'm very glad that they've had success with their program.

But unfortunately, it's very difficult for me to say this. I'm here in opposition today of the CUP as it as it's currently written. And I have to express these feelings in the strongest terms I can. For post expansion, which is 12,500 square feet for a two story classroom building, a basketball court, a significant increase in maximum student enrollment from 174 to four fourteen. That's 238% of what we currently have there.

An expansion of hours of operation will severely impact my quality of life, property value and I'll go into that in a bit and my quiet enjoyment of my home. It will impact that. I've already submitted concerns in writing and hopefully you've had an opportunity to review them. If not, you do have them. But I'd like to highlight a few points particularly around the issues of noise, privacy, traffic and property value.

With respect to noise, I have to disagree with that study that was submitted. Frankly, I don't think it's reflective of the experiences that we as neighbors have. The time of day that it was conducted was not when students are present. It was conducted prior to 08:00 in the morning. The listening stations that were used were not reflective of my personal experience.

Whoever conducted that study probably should be coming to my house and going in my backyard and experiencing what it's like. Because I gotta tell you, it is very, very loud. Now, I don't know the specifics of the ordinance, but I can tell you, it's it's unbelievably loud. And during special events where there's a public address system used, it's I don't know how else to put it, it's loud. And you could say, well, that's what you get for living next to a school.

But I was there first. And I had I had an expectation understanding of what that would be. And growing the school to 238% of maximum capacity just as not can grow with the deal. That being said, I know that I'll have to deal with noise during the construction phase. That's Monday through Friday, seven to seven and on the weekends.

I'm not looking forward to that. Moreover, during the course of construction, construction workers would have direct line of sight into my backyard, know, where I enjoy privacy for the last twenty seven years. With respect to that, I've seen the site plan, floor plan, and exterior elevations. And in reviewing those, are there are full length windows that would have to have a direct view into my backyard. And that sense of privacy that I've enjoyed for twenty seven years would be gone.

I have concerns about public safety. And my line of work, my day job is I own American Ambulance and public safety is something that's very important to me. And I know that there are real challenges with respect to traffic at Selmar in Neves. I experience it every single day on my way to work. It's kind of the Wild West trying to get out of that neighborhood because parents are trying to make a U-turn on knees to get into the school.

It's hard to know whether you can turn east because you don't know whether they're turning the neighborhood or making a u-turn. And going west, there is that challenge of the additional vehicles there. It it really is difficult. And the traffic study did not contemplate what goes on there at Selmar And Meese. It's concerning. It's a dangerous intersection. In fact, in 2023, there was a fatal accident at that intersection. It's really concerning from a public safety standpoint. I don't know what that impact would be on Selma and Nice.

Sir, excuse me. I'll I'll

just ask you to wrap up your thoughts. I will. Thank you. Thank you. I apologize for for being a little long winded. Yeah. I have concern about property value. All of these things would naturally have an impact. Engagement is would it would have been nice in the past twenty years ago. That's what we experienced. There's been none of that. There's been no dialogue. And and maybe we should have started there. But tonight, I ask you respectfully to please do not approve this CEP. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments. Do we have anyone else who would like to speak in opposition of this project?

Hello. My name is Sam O'Kinney, and I live on 543 West Muncie Avenue. I'm directly south of the school, and so there's a cul de sac that backs up to the school, and I live in direct line of sight of that. For me, it's not so much the privacy concerns because I don't experience the same thing that some of my neighbors do as far as backing up to the school. So the project with the two story building for me personally is not of concern.

But, you know, I do care about the concerns of my neighbors because we're all a community here that share and care for each other. The issue that I have personally is the traffic. Like my neighbor had just mentioned before, there was a fatal accident in 2023 right there coming out of that intersection. And, you know, we only have two ingress points for this neighborhood. One being right here on Nice and the other being on Peach.

And, you know, both of these being schools on, you know, at the point of ingress, we can't do anything about the population at Alta and Garfield where my kids attend. And it's busy. And so for me, sometimes the only proper exit is this exit on Nice during school times where people are dropping off and picking up their kids. And so to have a 200 and nearly 40% increase in traffic because we have more students that are gonna be attending really concerns me on my own personal ability to get in and out

of my

neighborhood in a timely and safe fashion. I did witness that that accident where someone was trying to leave our neighborhood. Because of the difficulty, the sight lines, and those things, there's trees and shrubs and stuff. You know, it's someone someone lost their life. And I have several times been exiting on Nice right there by the school. And it's been a real challenge to get out. And there's almost been several accidents because someone's trying to make a u-turn and, you know, obviously, they're trying to get their kids in a timely fashion. And there's sometimes confusion on who has the right of passage. Right? And so I have a lot of concerns around the traffic component of this.

I know they did a study, but I don't think they took into consideration the overall increase in traffic and really studied the time frames which people are coming and what impact that will have overall for, you know, the people that live there. So I I'm asking that you guys would not move forward with that conditional use permit. Thank you.

My name is doctor Reed Van Wignen. I'm an oral surgeon, and we live at the north point of the property. Excuse me. We moved there in 1995. So we we moved in the same day as the Valaris. And we went through the whole process of that Abby's day care, and then it transferred to the school. We were originally opposed to it, and then we supported it because we felt like it was a good project. It was well managed. My issue now has nothing to do with the height of the building because I'm a 160 feet from where the building's gonna be. Mine has to do with the traffic and the noise.

It gets significantly noisy middle of the day, but I'm not home. I work, But my wife tells me about it, which is fine. But on the weekends when they have their carnivals and stuff, it gets very loud out there. And sometimes on Saturdays and Sundays, it's very noisy, which I don't have a problem with it the way it is. But if we're increasing the school size, 240 students, it's gonna be an issue. It's gonna be a factor. The other thing I think that is underplayed at this point is the traffic issue. Coming out of there in the morning, significant safety issues. Cars u turning. I usually leave pretty early in the morning, so I don't see it as much.

But if I leave closer to when the school starts, it's hard to get out of there. And there's cars u turning, and I don't know how to solve that. I did speak to and I don't know spoke to Isaac, the architect, for the project, and he was saying something about talk of maybe having a direct turn in to the school. That might be something that could be considered, although I don't know how you'd you'd reconcile that with the current turn in on Sylmar. The cross between Sylmar across knees is very concerning most of the time anyway on a good day because it's hard to see down the street as Samuel talked about.

So I don't know how that would be reconciled. I think my concern is is that the numbers are too high for the amount of traffic availability to get in and out of there. And I also have concerns about the fact that there's only 28 parking spaces there, I think, Marissa, you said?

There are 31.

31. So on when they have their carnivals, where do the rest of the people park? There's 400 and something students. Where do the rest of the cars go? That's that's a concern because Sylmar is the only other place. You can't really park on knees, so that's a concern as well. So, I mean, those are my major concerns. I I would rather see a single story building being built. But like I say, the way the building's designed, there's no windows on

the back of it on

the North side that are gonna look into our property. So that doesn't affect me as much as it affects the people on the East and the West side of the property. So those are those would be our concerns. Thank you.

Do we have anyone else in the audience who would like to speak in opposition? No, I'm sorry.

It's a concern for all of us as neighbors. If I could just bring that up at this point.

I'm sorry. Applicant will have an opportunity to address any of the comments at the end.

Hello. Scott Rurick, and I'm a real estate appraiser by trade since 1983, and I live at the very north side of the property next to the Van Wagens. And, you know, I wrote a letter in opposition, I think, that you all got a copy of it. Is that correct? And just wanna highlight, you know, know, well, at first, the concerns about noise and traffic.

Noise, particularly, I work at home now and can't even open the windows in the back during the during the times of recess and lunch when they're out because it's just it is that noisy now. And the concern is a second story building cinder block with no windows, it's just going to bounce from the play yard straight north to where we live now to make it even more. And common sense says that there's going to be more noise with more kids. It's that simple. One of the things that I had in this study that I did is the density of the use of the property. I don't know how this fits in with the CUP, but the different schools the

North

Of Herndon and East Of Millbrook Avenue, There's six schools, the students per acre, and those average 40 students per acre that they use. Valley Crescent now is at 72 students per acre. And when they reach full amount of students at four fourteen students, that's 171 kids per acre, more than four times the land use density of the different schools in the subject area. And also just the setbacks. Most of the schools are like 300 feet from building to the property line, and you know, we've already talked about the setbacks that will be happening with the school.

And the and this Clovis schools are all single story as well, so the sound's able to dissipate it more as opposed to the two story that's gonna be happening as proposed for Valley Crescent. So anyway, I just suggest that I'll position to the COP.

Hi. My name is Julie Ruehrig. I live in the same house as Scott, 544 West Muncie. I'm not a doctor, but I am at home often. We work our businesses out of our home. I would like to cordially invite any of you to bring your laptop to our home on a given school day and see how much work you're able to get done with the noise that comes from the school. I am all in favor of kids having a great education. I think what you guys have done, you've been successful, obviously, because you want to grow. And you have students who are high quality. That's commendable.

It's great. But I think a property similar to the rest of the Clovis Unified School District properties that Scott identified, the amount of space that's given the fact that those schools are on corners. Some of them, yes, do back up to residential homes. But typically, it's just two sides. And sometimes it's just one. And some schools don't back up to any residential areas. We also were there when it was a day care. And it is zoned residential. We're we are a neighborhood. And, again, I I know what the sound is like.

I I welcome you to come and be in my backyard. They have a gardener that comes. He spends a lot of time there on Saturdays. So, you know, it's fine to hear the children. It's not even fine anymore. They scream all the time, to be honest with you. But it's, you know, it's one thing to have them during the day. School hours, we look forward to when it's not school hours, we look forward to the summer because it's very disruptive. We can't have things in our backyard often. We have to close our windows when we have people in our home because we can hear them screaming.

It's very loud for a considerable part of the day. And again, I invite any of you to come to our house and see for yourself. And I'm not sure where they got the noise study from, but I think you would find it to be different from what your study showed.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak in opposition?

Hi. My name is Amy Gilster. I live at 517 West Kenosha Avenue, the house that directly sides the school. And our house backs onto their playground area, and we get the brunt of the noise from that alone with children screaming during the day. And I am currently enrolled at community college, so I'm home at random points during the day between classes, and the noise is very loud.

And along with that, the traffic issue, leaving for classes in the morning, I have noticed what a lot of my other neighbors have noticed. It's hard to get out of the neighborhood when there is a line of 10 cars doing U turns because they have the right of way first. And I also did see the crash that happened at that same intersection, and I'm pretty sure it was a also a college student in that passed there because of the visibility at that intersection. And I also have noticed that even though they put in the gate, a lot of people picking up kids will still park in front of our home or we'll pick up their kids and then park in front of our home to talk and chat and have blocked our driveway before. And that's all I have.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone, guys. My name is Jay Wright. I live at 1267 North Cindy Avenue. I'm one of those guys that lives in that two story house. It's from Gary McDonald. So we're the new guys on the block. We knew the school was there when we first came in there, and so we were ready for the noise. I've got three kids, so I know everything that goes on and accepted it. Excuse me. I'm one of three people, family members that lives there.

I'm one. My cousin over there lives next door, and then my brother lives right in the corner. So all of our yards back up to that school over there. I think the biggest concern that we have is one with the privacy issue. I know personally from my standpoint, respecting the culture, I never go out on the balcony when the, girls are playing out there or anything like that. I think having a big building I haven't seen the side plans. I don't know which way the windows are gonna go. Not to say that we walk around nude or anything, but at the same time, having that engagement would have been great for us to know what's going on and give our input into that. I think the other thing is the traffic. I know there's been a lot of discussion from Sylmar Avenue, but Timmy Avenue has been left off.

And Timmy is the next one up where we turn into and then turn into Kenosha and then into Cindy Avenue. That is a wild wild west too also when you leave in the morning or coming back in the afternoon. Like I said, I've got two kids. One's at Alta Sierra, and I got three kids. I got one in Alta Sierra and then one at Garfield. So I work from home, and I do go pick up the kids on a regular basis. And I do find that trying to get out of that neighborhood, not nearly as bad as what Sylmar is, but it's still hard because you've got people coming down knees, and then you got the school. And then especially when you're coming back from dropping off, you got people trying to do u turns, trying to get in there as soon as

they can so they can

get the kids dropped off on time. It's not I I don't agree with the traffic study. I think there needs to be some analysis done on those two intersections on its own, not just the major intersections, Peach and Willow. At the end of it all, I think I'm not gonna oppose it in that way. I'm just gonna simply say, I would love for some engagement on this before we proceed forward with this just to give us a little bit more idea of what's going on. Allow us to give some input into this. I didn't know about it until Todd told me, Saturday that this was gonna happen. So, that's all I would, ask at this point. Thank you.

Is there anyone else in the audience that would like to speak in opposition of this project?

I'm Brian Kilster. Live at 517 West Kenosha Avenue, same as Amy. And we our house is probably the closest. Our our bedroom is probably five feet from the the brick wall. So yeah. I mean, it gets pretty loud. I guess my concern is by double more than doubling the size of of the school, that noise will just be intolerable. I'm a veteran. I've got a disability. I've got trouble with my ears.

So I work long days, and then I volunteer. I do ski instructing on the weekends in the winter. So I know what it's like, you know, teaching. I understand, you know, growing the school sounds great. But, yeah, when it comes to safety and just myself, I mean, honestly, we'd probably be looking at selling our house. It's not something I wanna do, but, yeah, it's it'd really be at that point. You know? It's yeah. Everything else has really been covered by most of the neighbors. Yes, I'd love to agree with everything and have it move forward. But for us, it's just not more than doubling the size is just way too much. So thanks for your time.

Is there anyone else in the audience that would like to speak in opposition of this project? And then we're going go ahead and close the public portion of this meeting. And we'll invite the applicant if he's interested in any type of rebuttal to any of the concerns addressed by the public.

No. I do appreciate, again, all the neighbors being able to share their thoughts and concerns. And, again, in an ideal scenario, you know, there's an unlimited amount of land to work with that's affordable that we'd be able to expand. But, again, with the city and what we have, we're we're trying to make the best use of our campus as it is. We're trying to offer the students a better education.

And so I understand that people are focused on the growth aspect of it. Again, the the whole point of this project is to provide better, like, state of the art facilities for the kids. And so I again, I appreciate everyone's concerns about that. And and we will work with the neighbors and do our best to mitigate as best as we can the noise and the traffic, etcetera. In terms of the weekends, again, we rarely do weekend activities.

The carnival is once a year. And we didn't have one last year. But, again, our door is open. We're very willing to work with the neighbors and help appease as much as we can. But again, it's really important for these students that we have this building, that they get a science lab, they get a computer lab, they have a place.

And if anything, it may reduce noise because you have more space for the students to hang out inside. Because right now, if they want to relax and so forth, it's basically the classroom. Right? So you either have the classroom or you have outdoors. But with this, they have other places like labs and indoor multipurpose room, etcetera. In regards to the accident, it should be noted that, unfortunately, it it was a fatal accident. It did not involve it did not occur during pickup or drop off. It was in the middle of the day. I do agree, having been part of

the school for the past

twelve plus years, that, you know, visibility and things can be improved. But, again, that's outside of our our purpose today. But I concur with the neighbors on that. And so but that that would be a separate thing. I think in terms of the parents and the drop off and everything else, very similar to just at Garfield, Alt Sierra, Mable Creek. You time your exits, which exit, which route to go, and you just work with what you got because, again, it's part of living in Clovis. Thank you.

I have a question. Oh, yes. Sorry. Go on. Sorry about that.

How many weekend activities do you have, like the carnivals and stuff?

So that's a great question. Currently, I'm trying to recall. The principal of the school is here. I'm trying to think of the last time we've ever done a weekend. It must have been when's the well, when was the last weekend? It it it's it it it is rare. Yeah. So tip it's extremely rare to do the weekend. I understand the gardener

comes on the weekend and

yeah.

So so yeah. So the reason I brought it

up is because it was brought up about the weekend carnivals. And then one other thing too is parking. I'm gonna assume on those events, you park in the grass in the back. Correct. Okay. That was the questions I had from things that I heard from

Yes. Yeah. So just to kinda reiterate, I think the last like I said, the last we didn't have a carnival last year, so it's been two years since the last time we had a carnival. And in terms of weekend activities, again, it's extremely rare because to engage the students and their family, we try to do it during the the week to coincide with after school. Okay. Then

day the times of operation during the week, I saw I saw earlier it was seven to 05:30. Is that correct? Because it was brought up, it was from seven to seven.

Oh, I'd like to invite the principal, if that's okay, as she manages the date the activities. Yes. Sorry.

My name is Malika Harizi, and I'm the principal. I started from last year as the principal of Malikranson School. And the time for operation, 07:30, the teacher come, but the kids start 07:45 coming. We start classes at eight. So 07:45, just few parents that they have work, they have to go early.

They will drop their kids, and they are inside the building. They stay with us in the office until we open the classroom 07:45, then they'll be in the classroom. So, basically, mostly, no students would be outside. It could happen once student go, but we will catch them, bring them back. So that's our hour of operation. As I said, 07:45, but mostly, we have 08:00. That's when start the school starts. We finish by 03:30, and we dismiss until 03:45. And then, of course, if we have, like, tutoring or something, that will stay inside the classrooms. Okay.

So I see that you're asking for seven to five. And the reason I asked this because it was brought up that they would be outside and stuff from seven to seven. So I wanted to correct that.

No. Not seven to seven.

Yes. I wanted

to make I wanted to make that correction so everybody understood at the times.

Maximum, we have some some students which stay, as I said, tutoring or playing a little bit. Maximum, it's 04:45. It's not even five, and it's mostly indoor.

Okay. Fine. Thank you very much.

And we support the the kids with whatever they need. Especially, we do intervention, but it's in the classrooms.

Thank you. I just thank you for the correction.

If

you would want mind staying for a second in case any of

the other commissioners have follow-up questions.

Any further questions? Your I just wanna clarify the purpose for your extended enough time is you're asking for 7AM is to allow for your your teachers to get there early and be prepared. Right? So it's not students driving. It's it's your teachers.

Yes. Yes, ma'am. It's just to allow our teachers to have enough time to prep for their class.

Okay. And then you're extending your hours till 5PM. And is that for after school activities with the students? Yes.

Intervention and some STEM club, art club, drama club. So that's what we want to do. As what the parents mentioned that we want to give a better service to our students. We have bright students, and they deserve better quality of education.

And those activities will all be taking place indoors.

Mostly, except sports sometimes. And even sports, we try to keep it for Friday because it's our short day. Therefore, it will finish like 03:30, 03:45, we'll finish. So we try our best to accommodate our neighbors. Very good. Thank you. May I add something? Of course. Yes. So the reason for the expansion also, honestly, as I said, I started just last year.

And I have parents come beg me to get their kids to enroll their kids, and we don't have space. We have, like, kindergarten. It went to 26, and still people begging. And the classroom is so small. We cannot put these five years old in a small area and it's not good for their education.

They need more space to have different activities. So this is why we are begging to have this expansion because many people, they are buying houses and they are moving from other states just to come to our school. And it breaks my heart to turn them away. Thank you. Thank you.

Do we have any further questions for the applicant? Okay. Thank you very much. May I have your seat

there, And can I just mention

Of course?

The the school does have a basketball court currently. What's happening is the building is gonna be built on top of the coexisting court. And just so you know, the court is not regulation size. It's not even large enough for five on five. It's literally a four on four, and it's a very small court. So, again, it's it's not a new basketball court per se. It's just a moving on from one side of the building to the other. Thank you.

Thank you

very much.

Does the commission have any clarifying questions for staff? Alright. We're going to bring it back to commission. Oh, go ahead.

Yeah. I do have a couple questions. So

the

related to traffic, is is it a is it or will it be a marked school zone in this area?

Yeah.

It already has been. We went out there this summer, marked it a school zone, and posted 25 mile an hour speed limits on on knees.

Okay. And that so as it relates to traffic and I understand. I take my kids to Alta Sierra and other schools here. I mean, everyone's making u turns. Half of them are illegal.

I'm sorry, sir. The public portion has been closed.

Yes. So I I just wanna make sure that, you know, one of the mitigating controls around traffic and people making U turns and being cautious when having to enter or exit is to slow traffic down there, especially, obviously, for public safety of our children. Yeah.

The school actually requested the city to consider that, and it coincided with Clovis Unified Ashken sorry, for Garfield as well. So we studied that section of knees from Willow all the way over to to to Minnewawa. And I've got documentation, and I've got pictures from staff going out and verifying that if signs were put up to to post it for 25 miles an hour during school times.

Thank you.

And then my second question is there were some statements made here around the noise studies kind of questioning maybe the integrity or accuracy of that study based on the time of day. Did city staff look at that and take that into consideration? Mean, just being logical, if I wanted to do a traffic study and I hired somebody to do it at midnight, it's going to look a lot different than it is at you know, 8AM, 7AM, and rush hour, same with noise. Can you just help address the validity or or not of the timing and what staff considered with with that?

Yeah. So when we saw the project, we did request that they had a study conducted. And when we do that, it is by a third party who is, you know, completely separate from the applicant and staff. And so when they submitted the study to us, a lot of it is kind of they're not studying the existing levels because there are not four fourteen students there. The basketball court is not located in that area. So we did review it and we did find it sufficient as they weren't studying just the existing conditions. They were studying the proposed conditions as well.

Thank you for clarifying that.

Let me see.

I think that's all the questions I have at this time. Thank you.

One thing, Marissa. On one of the letters, they talked about there was on the original CUP some sort of prohibition regarding using the playground on weekends. Did that exist? Because I didn't see that on the current

condition. I am not familiar with that condition. Okay. But it was not included in any of the more recent amendments. Okay. I did not see it in the original, though.

Okay. And do you have or do you know of any other small private schools that we have the ratio of, like, students to size? Like, is this exceptionally abnormal? Is this, like, normally what we

would see within the city? I cannot say. I I did not look into the size of other private schools within the city. I'm not sure if any other staff has information on that.

But staff and no other city department had an issue with the number

of students on this. Mean, there

was no issue on your guys' part. Correct.

There were

no concerns.

Okay. Thank you.

I had one follow-up question that I actually miss asking the applicant, but you can answer in the event that you know that. They mentioned that they try not to do activities on the weekends, yet we have opportunity for them to be there on the weekends. Do you know if class is conducted on the weekends? Or this is just available for them in the event that they want to do something on the weekends?

That is correct. There are no classes conducted on the weekends. It would be for their carnival or if it was like a sporting event, something of that nature, but not classes.

Thank you.

Sorry, forgot one. So on the weekends or in the evenings, is there any condition that states they can't use a loudspeaker or any amplification? And just for curiosity, is that condition?

Yes. So we do have some conditions in here regarding noise and speakers, and just noise in general cannot exceed the city's limits. However, with the current hours of operations, they should not be doing anything after 03:30PM, Monday through Friday, or after 1PM on the weekends.

And that's not a new condition? That's That is not new that and there have been no complaints that you're aware of.

Not that I am aware of. If it did come up, then that would trigger staff to do some researching and see what methods were required. But outside of the hours on the screen under the second amendment, there should not be anything.

Okay. Thank you. I just wanna clarify that.

I don't know if it helps,

but the those hours of operation too, those are within the guidelines for the the city noise ordinance. So they they start later and end earlier than the city requires the mini code.

And we do have a condition number 14 that addresses outdoor speaker speaker type noise having to fall within the city's noise ordinance.

Do we have any other questions for staff?

No. Okay.

Let me take it back for deliberation and motion.

Okay. Well, I thank you all for coming out, because

I know it's not always the most

fun thing to do is come out and speak in favor of an opposition. I, too, actually live across the street from high school, so I'm completely aware of the noise. And it's something that you learn to live with. It's something that's always there. High schools with a cannon, that's a whole another issue. So I have to say I totally understand that. So I don't think that the noise is something that I would be moved to vote against this item for, because it is a school. It's been a school. It's been there for a very long time. Yes, there's going to be more students, but there's more students at every school that we have in Clovis.

In terms of the traffic, there's always traffic issues there. There's been traffic on that street. There's been accidents on those streets. I don't know that you can contribute either the accident or the fatality or even the people making U turns that you can say that that is people going to the school. We have that at every school. We have that all over the city of Clovis. Obviously, if there's issues where you can't see leaving your street and there's visibility issues, those are issues that should be addressed with the city. I don't see that that's something that would preclude me from voting in favor of this issue or this item.

The other one.

In terms of I know some people brought up property values. We don't look at property values. That's not something that the Planning Commission addresses. We look at zoning and ordinances. And in terms of the two story building, if this was single family homes, there would be two story homes there, and they would be much closer to the fence line as to where the school is going to have their two story building. So I don't see that privacy could really be a concern here. The distance from this two story building and it being a school, I don't know that that's really an issue that I could foresee being a problem. So in light of those things, I don't have a problem voting for this item.

Before I provide my public comment here, I wanted to ask one more question to staff. So with a conditional use permit, if this were to proceed favorably tonight and get approved, And then things like noise levels, let's say, exceeded city ordinances or traffic impacts really do result. Is the CUP going to or can it come up for periodic review and essentially revocation?

Yes. That is correct. If staff becomes aware of any issue of any sort of operation outside of our code or our conditions, then it would trigger us to review the issue, potentially take code enforcement actions, and then ultimately, if things were not good, then it could be revoked. The CV could be revoked.

And would staff have criteria or some sort of thresholds that would have to be breached some number of times before it would come back? And and would it come back to this body, or would it go just to city staff?

Yes. So we would take our code enforcement actions, work with the applicant, and see how we can navigate that. And then if it did not go favorably, then we would come back to the Planning Commission for that decision.

Thank you for clarifying that. So to echo the comments of my fellow commissioner, I appreciate everyone who has come out here tonight and those of you who came up to speak. This is the time to make your public comments known. We're all citizens just like you sitting here trying to make the best decision. As much as I wish I had a crystal ball to try to do this, we don't.

So we have to get your input and use our discretion as members here who love the city of Clovis and wanted to continue to thrive. There's a lot of history here as I look back at the initial presentation from the original CUP all the way up until today. I will say just generally, one of my guiding principles as a planning commissioner and as I got on this planning commission is that I like to see good integration with surrounding areas. I think that's really important. A lot of the things that come before us are vacant pieces of land, sometimes lots of density sitting next to people who have four or five acres who have enjoyed that rural lifestyle.

And it's unreasonable to think that nothing is ever going to go next to you. But it is reasonable to find thoughtful ways to mitigate or compromise and not everyone's horse always is going to come in, right? So both sides have to be willing to give and take, at least in an ideal world. Right? So, you know, as I sit here and and I listen, I think the mission of the school is fantastic.

I think, I mean, we need education in The United States. We need to we need better education in many aspects. So I commend you for making more education available. It's great to hear that there are people who want enrollment, and I think you deserve to find ways to grow and expand not only the services you can provide, but just capacity as well. At the same time, you know, I I look at the neighbors and, you know, is this a good fit? Yes. There's a lot of noise already. There's gonna be noise with with increased students. Is it gonna be exponential? Yeah.

Maybe. I I don't know how much. I'm not a noise expert. But that's why I ask qualifying questions of our staff, and I trust our city staff to do right by the citizens here, by adhering to noise ordinances, responding to complaints, and just, you know, making sure that everyone's neighborly, the school to the residents, the residents to the school. I my biggest concern here is traffic.

I don't think you know, I think where the the two story is placed, I don't see a lot of risk of things being looked in the backyards any more than maybe the other two stories. We hear this all the time. There's always two story properties adjacent to other residential. I understand it, but it is often a buy right thing. In this case, there's pretty tremendous setbacks that I think aren't gonna give you quite the line of sight that that maybe you think it will.

The

I guess the the the the traffic, you know, traffic's a problem. It's a problem at all these schools. Like I said, people are making illegal u turns. I see motor cops, you know, patrolling regular and often to make sure people aren't speeding. I think that that is gonna persist irrespective of whether there's more students being dropped off there or not. It's just it's a busy area. It's a busy city. It's a growing, thriving city. I I do kind of, I think, struggle that sometimes these projects, in this case, it's a CUP, but sometimes land use projects come before the infrastructure is in place. Right?

So whether that means we need a turn lane or we need more signage or we need expanded roadways. So that's one of those things that I personally struggle with. But I guess to kind of put a bow on it and wrap it up, I I I do think it's a good project. I am not in favor of moving it forward tonight because I really would like to see, and I heard from the applicant say, you know, hey, I we should have partnered with the neighbors. I think there is more common ground that could probably be held, but I think the neighbors have to also be realistic and understanding that it's not you're not you can't do anything.

It's let's let's find something that works and helps integrate the the two environments so that they can coexist. And that's what I want for our community is for us to all coexist and everybody can can find a win in this. So again, I I love the mission. I love what you're doing. And I really, I think that that's my guiding principle that I just can't vote in favor of that this evening.

Sorry, Chair Antonia, if I may add a comment. Just as an option for the commission this evening, if the commission chooses to move forward with approving the project, you do have the ability to add a condition of approval to this project. Perhaps one could be to bring it back to the commission. An example could be after a year after the certificate of occupancy has been issued on the building, where the members of the public and the neighbors would have an opportunity to come back and provide more information to the commission after that year. And again, that's an option if the commission chooses to do that.

Thank you for that. Thank you, everyone, for coming out this evening to speak either in four or in a position of this project. It is always refreshing to see community engagement. I encourage it always, and it is very beneficial for us to hear your point of view and your perspective. You are the ones who live there.

You know, we all as my fellow commissioners have stated, you know, they live by schools. They drop off their children. I've done that myself. So we're all aware of the traffic issues that happen really at every school, honestly. But I also love the mission of the school, and I love that you provide another alternative.

Clovis schools are amazing, but you provide another alternative and a different type of course of study, which is really it's good to be diverse in the city. So I really appreciate that. I have my own concerns about the traffic as I mentioned, but I echo some of my commissioner's opinions also. So I'm not gonna go restate what they've said. But in in whole, at this time, I don't I don't really have anything that I could say that I would oppose this project.

It is a good project. We need good education in the city. We want to raise our children or have the opportunity to raise our children with our beliefs or with our belief system, and it's good that you provide that. And I understand it sounds like you have a demand, and that's great. Twenty years, you've built a a really great thing there, and I think it's wonderful that you wanna offer more electives and allow them to grow their minds.

So at this time, I I don't have an issue in it, and I would recommend that we add that condition to bring it back in a year after the certificate of occupancy and give the neighbors an opportunity to come in and speak again. I will say to the applicant that it's important to engage your neighborhood, be a good neighbor, allow them to be part of your process. I know the investments are your own, and your board makes a decision, but your neighbors are affected by what you do on your property just like any other neighborhood. Any other neighbor would be affected by its next door neighbor. So I would encourage that to build a relationship with your neighbors and get to know them and get allow them to get to know you.

They might support everything that you wanna do if they get to see all the wonderful things that you're doing in your school. Okay. I don't know. Are we ready for a motion?

Well, I'll I I guess, let

me make one more comment before we motion, and this may lead into me making a motion. But, you know, I I there's obviously an investment in time and money and getting on the calendar to get here and get a decision. And again, I I think, you know, what you're doing is is good. I like the mission. I'd hate to you know, depending on how this goes tonight, send it to you know, send it back or or cause it to get tied up anywhere. But I also heard from the applicant who said, you know, hey. I I think we should have talked to the neighbors.

I think

that's reasonable. So I would be in favor of a continuance to allow a meeting with the neighbors to occur, possibly some revisions in this project and then bring this project back to the commission for evaluation in March. If that's not feasible, then we can take an action to approve or deny this evening. But, I'd like to make that motion. So I will announce I'll make a motion to ask the applicant to partner with the neighbors to discuss and come to terms that are hopefully amenable for both and ideally seeking the neighbors support in the future and reconvene this in March.

I'm not going to second that yet. I do think that it would be good if you guys could delay and have a meeting with your neighbors. I think that could go a long way. I don't think issues like traffic are going to be solved. You're not going to solve them because you're building a two story building is not going to make that much of an effect, but that can be solved.

I would prefer to see a continuance and see if you guys could have some sort of meeting and and come to a more cohesive partnership because, obviously, you do have to live there. And I think if you saw what they were gonna do, you might like you said before, you originally oppose it, and now then you were for it. Maybe if you saw, you would have a different opinion. I would prefer to see a continuance versus coming back in a year Because to me, if they build it and a year later, we come back and say, oh, no. The neighbors don't like it, then that doesn't behoove anybody. That doesn't do any good to in my opinion. That's that's not that effective. So depending how many other commissioners feel, which I don't know. But I will go ahead and make a second now at this point to do a continuance. Sorry, George.

If the commission is looking to do a continuance, staff does recommend that the commission allow the applicant to comment on the continuance before the before the action is taken. Yeah.

Oh, yep. If the applicant please step up. And all we are looking for is if you are willing to have a continuance, meet with your neighbors, open up discussions.

You

know, we do have I mean, this is this is great. I mean, I like I mentioned before, that probably we should have talked to them. We talked to them before. I thought we knew them very well, and these are the same neighbors we talked before. But whatever, we're willing to do that.

But we do have a plan because, as you know, we're limited with the, you know, time of the year when we open a school and all that. So this is already month of January. If we delay it for two more months, we will not be able to open this new building for the new year, which would be in August. In August, we we don't start a school. We were hoping to start the construction soon, and construction will take three to four months.

So we will be able to be ready by August. If we postpone for two more months, that means we will not be able to be ready for 2526. We will go then beyond to 2627. And as our principal said, we have some students waiting to get in line. We don't want to have a classroom of 25 students.

It'll be we had known for small classes, small ratio of teacher up to student ratio. I mean, know, the the the students to teacher ratio, and we want to continue that. We are willing to do meet with them anytime if you you can approve it today. And then, you know, if they don't we don't agree on something, we can come and do the presentation. In the meantime, we will get a chance to start, you know, doing our first because we still have to go to city council. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you.

Yeah. I was just gonna kinda reiterate. And and, again, it's it's an apology. You know, for my specific neighborhood behind Maple Creek, I know all my neighbors. We have a block party and everything.

And again, it's just again, realizing that the school itself and its neighborhood and being involved and having the students engaged and, you know, again, going forward, you know, we'll do things like neighborhood cleanup and and being more engaged and having neighborhood meetings, maybe at the school as well with some food as well, you know, and and talk things over. But I I also concur. I think, you know, it's it is a project that does take a lot of time. And the more that we delay, it just sort of can compound and delay another school year, etcetera. So I do ask that, again, we're happy to have meetings, like quarterly or what have you.

We can set that on the agenda for our school and the neighbors. But I do ask the commission to approve the project. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I just wanna provide a quick clarification. This item doesn't go to council. It stays here after it ends here with the Planning Commission's determination unless it is appealed to to the council.

Real quick, commissioners, just for the record, just so the record is clear, if you're going to make the motion to continue it to the March meeting, I think it'd just be good for the record to make sure that it's a specific date and time for the record, so that way it wouldn't have to be renoticed in the paper again.

Okay. I do want to speak on the continuance. The two primary issues that I heard tonight from the opposition was traffic, which we've I which we've noted that it is not probably something that we are here in the commission will be able to solve. It sounds like there is possibly engagement by the city that might need to take place, and it isn't something that this project or the school would be able to resolve. And the other was noise, and it's a school.

So we anticipate that they there would be noise. I'm just trying to understand. I do I've I'm I recommended that you speak to your neighbors. So, obviously, that's a good you know, I'm I'm gonna support that. But I don't know that continuing this project is gonna resolve those two issues because increase of student size outside playing, I'm assuming, eventually will make more noise.

And the building itself, I think one other issue was privacy. The setbacks are pretty pretty good. And so and the way that as commissioner stated, the way the building is positioned, I I believe that it would not be any more intrusive than the other homes that have recently been built. So I myself would want to approve this project and bring it back in one year.

Yeah. I don't see anything coming from putting this off until March on it. They're they're not going to change things. They're not gonna bring students indoors to play, things like that. So I think we're just putting things out there to slow this down, and we're not really improving anything that's been put before us tonight. What's put before us tonight is not gonna change, So I can't see any reason to, you know, postpone it until the next meeting.

Yeah. I agree with that. My thoughts in postponing were so that there could be a meeting to find some more harmonious, you know, communication, which I still think you need to have a meeting regardless in light of the fact that you do need a decision tonight. Can I rescind my second?

Yes. You can.

Okay. I rescind my second. Sorry. And does somebody else wanna make a motion?

I make a motion that we approve conditional use permit to c CUP nineteen ninety five dash zero zero nine a four.

Second.

And just to clarify, that's with the added condition to bring it back?

Yes. It's with the added condition to bring it back in one year, one certificate of occupancy. Okay. That's correct.

Alright. I have a motion by commissioner Hatcher and a second by chair Antuna to approve Hinkle, I apologize. I apologize about that. Thanks for thanks for the correction. I have a motion by commissioner Hinkle and a second by chair Antuna to approve CUP nineteen ninety five dash zero zero nine a four with the added condition to bring the CUP back one year after the issuance of the certificate of occupancy for the building.

Could I

change that a little bit? Sure. If needed, have it come back within a year. Okay. If needed, if there's a problem. If needed.

I'd like to review it in one year. I don't wanna modify that.

Okay. Alright.

Okay. So keep it. Okay. We'll keep it. Alright. We'll keep it then. So it will come back in one year after the issuance of the certificate of occupancy. Commissioner Henkel?

Yes.

Chair Antuna? Yes. Commissioner Hatcher? Yes. Commissioner Bedstead? No. Motion carries three zero one one. Oh, I'm sorry. 311.

Okay. Very good. I'd like to adjourn this meeting at 07:42 until our next meeting in March. Sorry, Brenda.