Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good evening, and welcome to the 05/22/2025 meeting of the City of Clovis Planning Commission. Members of the public are encouraged to participate in this meeting by attending the Planning Commission meeting here in person, submitting written comments at least two hours before the meeting, or viewing the meeting, which is webcast and accessible at the city's website. I'd like to call this meeting to order. At this time, commissioner Bedstead will lead us in the flag salute.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to its republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Allegiance I Commission secretary, please call the roll.

Commissioner Bedstead?

Here.

Commissioner Hatcher? Here. Commissioner Hebert? Here. Chair Antuna?

Here.

And commissioner Henkel is absent.

Very good. At this time, I'd like to open for a motion to approve the minutes for the 01/23/2025 planning commission meeting.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

Second.

I have a motion from commissioner Hatcher and a second from commissioner Bedstead to approve the minutes of 01/23/2025. Commissioner Hatcher?

Yes.

Bedstead? Yes. Commissioner Hebert? Yes. Chair Antuna?

Yes.

K. Minutes approved with four zero one with commissioner Hinkle absent.

Very good. Do we have any commission secretary comments?

Good evening, chair and commissioners. It's nice to see you. It's been a couple of months. I do have a couple updates. I wanted to start off with some staffing updates in the planning division. So since you've last met, we have appointed Mackenzie as the deputy city planner. So she is now permanently in that role. Marissa Parker has also transitioned from an assistant planner to an associate planner here in the planning division. And then as far as recruitments go, we've got two associate planners. We're looking at hopefully being able to onboard here in the near future, and we have one senior planner that's out for recruitment right now.

Other updates, if I can take just a minute on the general plan update. Hopefully you've been seeing a lot of work that's been happening. Our general plan advisory committee applications are still open. They run through the end of this month. So at the close on May 30, we'll be reviewing those applications and then returning to city council who will make the ultimate decision on who sits on that committee at the first meeting in July.

In addition to the GPAC, we've been holding visioning sessions. I know a few of you attended the the first visioning session. The second one for the general plan update will be on the twenty eighth. That's at 6PM in the transit Center. We've also been attending and having a booth at a number of pop up events or pop up. Yeah. We've been having pop up events at around the city. So we've participated at Trail Fest. We are at Farmers Market, and then this is public works week. We'll be out out in downtown at the tomorrow on Friday.

And then I also wanted to mention land use change request. That's an application process. So we have made that available. That runs in through the August where if a property owner is interested in a land use change, they can fill out an application. They're not guaranteed the change, but we will then consider that change as part of the general plan update. And I believe beyond the shirts that you should have there at the dais, that's all of the updates for the general plan.

Very good. Thank you very much for those updates.

Alma, I'm sorry. I have a couple as well.

Of course.

Thank you

very much. Thank you, Renee, for those. I have a couple of updates for you guys as well. Just a quick reminder that there are some trainings to take care of on your target solutions, and if you need anything, just let me know. Some happy news. Commissioner Bedstead was reappointed at the May 5 council meeting, so congratulations to Bedstead for that. He'll be with us for a few more years. And also at a council meeting this last Monday, May 19, the SANCAL APA Urban Design Award of Excellence was awarded to the city of Clovis for the Loma Vista Village Green Project. So I just wanted to recognize that to you guys. Thank you.

Very good. Thank you very much for those updates. Do we have any comments from the Planning Commission members? Very well. Seeing none, We'll move on. The planning commission will now hear public comments. This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the planning commission on any matter within the planning commission jurisdiction. This is not this is not that is not listed on the agenda. In order for everyone to be heard, please limit your time to three minutes. So anyone wishing to be placed on the agenda for a specific topic should contact the planning division and submit correspondence at least ten days prior to the desired date.

Is there anyone here that would like to speak? Okay, very well. Step up to that podium and state your name and address for the record, please. Oh, one second. There's a button there.

Good evening. My name is Susan Patterson. My address is 1174 Oak Avenue in Clovis. And my home is near Alluvial and Sunnyside. And I have two questions.

One, came into the planning commission about the department and asked and a gentleman was going to look into it but I never heard back from him. And it's the exit on Sunnyside from the Walmart shopping center. It's the north exit behind the shopping center. And you can turn right or south onto Sunnyside. And then if you wanna go back north, you have to go down to the stoplight and turn around because there's a no u-turn sign there.

But everybody, well I shouldn't say everybody, I try not to, makes a u-turn there. And so I wanted to know what I was trying to find out was if that can be changed or if it's, you know, the street has to be a certain width in order for that to be, for U turns to be allowed there. Because it gets violated so frequently and it's really inconvenient to go down to the light. So that was one of my first question. Can that be changed to a U-turn lane rather than no U-turn?

My second question is about the light at the corner of Clovis Avenue and Sunnyside. The left turn light to turn north on Clovis Avenue from Herndon, that's what I meant, Herndon, not Sunnyside, is too short. If you enter the light on a green and it turns yellow right as you cross into it, if you're on the inside left turn lane or more in the middle of the traffic, not up next to the divider because there's two left turn lanes there. You can't make it through that light while it's yellow. It turns red even if it turns green when you enter it.

It's red before you can get through that intersection. And I was there today and watched somebody go through it that entered it when it was still yellow, but it turned red before they actually crossed the crosswalk. And obviously they couldn't make it through, it just looks like a dangerous point to me that I've encountered so many times people running red lights there, not even safe to make a legal left turn there with a light. Thank you. How do I follow-up to see what can be done about that? Or am I allowed to ask that?

Yes. So we could Fernando?

Good

evening. My name is Fernando Coperi. I supervise the CAP, which I'll be presenting later tonight. If I can get your contact information, I'll walk out with you or go next to you. We program the traffic signals. I'll get your information and we'll get back to you.

Thank you.

Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Okay. Very good. We're gonna go ahead now and move on to our public hearing. Item two, consider approval of resolution for the general plan consistency finding for the proposal of twenty twenty five twenty six community investment program.

Fernando will be reporting. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. Good evening, Planning Commission. I'm again, I'm, Fernando Coperi, and I will be, presenting tonight the 02/2026 community, investment program budget and inclusive of the five year community investment program. This 64 page document that was attached to the reports submitted to the planning commission consist of multiple projects that it was a collaborative I'm sorry.

It was a it was put together with collaboration from different department heads and staff from the city, taking into consideration all the needed projects for the city, just like necessary for public services, utilities, and or safety purposes that are also consistent with the city needs. Sorry. I meant to keep going. I apologize. Section sixty five thousand four zero one of the government code calls for the planning commission's review of the planning commission sorry, of the annual capital improvement program.

The city of Columbia refers to its capital improvement program as its community investment program. The purpose of this provision is to have the planning commissions review the community investment program and make specific I'm sorry. Make a specific finding that it is in conformance with the general plan and the relevant specific plans. Then the city council could adopt the the budget. So staff is recommending the adoption of the resolution, finding that the 02/2526 community investment program is consistent with the general plan and the relevant specific plans of the city of Clovis.

So on on this slide, you can see the 2526 budget. It's a little over $50,000,000. It's 50,000 50,000,162. And on this chart, you can see the program areas, just like government facilities. This year, we get introduced the we introduced the measure y, also sewer, parks, streets, water, community sanitation or refuse, and the housing and community development.

This program consists of 56 projects or activities, and those could be between design, right of way acquisition, and or construction. For the street projects, the majority of the funds come from federal and state grants. For in the 2526 budget, we have around $8,600,000 for grants and regional measure c for specific projects. We also have from gas sales tax approximately $5,100,000 and for Measure C pass through approximately $4,000,000 In the recent years, we have witnessed an upward trend in construction cost mainly due to inflation, which was directly reflected in the cost of materials and labor. And we're now also facing tariffs, which adds uncertainty.

So it is unclear when this trend will end, But this could affect or impact the number of projects we can deliver. Some of the noteworthy projects in this coming fiscal year from what we have from different funds, but from the street funds. There's multiple road reconstruction and rehabilitation projects, including the annual cape and slurry seal that provides preventive maintenance to approximately 20 miles roads local streets. I'm sorry. We also have the widening of Shaw Avenue, which will be the phase two of the widening.

This is between DeWolf and Leonard from two lanes to six with a median. We're also widening Herndon Avenue east of Temperance up to the city limits approximately. And we have the Villa Minnewawa widening between Herndon and Alluvial. We also have the it's a Cottonwood Park pedestrian bridge, And that will provide connectivity between the Cottonwood and the the Dry Creek Trail into the Dry Creek Business Park. From the development fees and enterprise funds, there is the recharge basing at Agua Dulce and Barstow.

There's also two wealth projects. One is Well 35 and Well 45. The 135 is by Costco, and 45 will be around the area of Willow and Perrin. And there's also allocated funds for sewer and water bonds. And from the general fund, we'll be designing the City Of Clovis alternate dispatch center, Loma Vista, north of the Fire Station 6.

And it's not shown there, but we also wanna go in construction for the tenant improvements of the senior center, Lama Square. So like I said before, this year, we have a measure y, and, we will be, including four four projects, which one will be reroofing Fire Station 1. We'll also be constructing a gym. It's a detached structure. It's gonna be used as a gym in Fire Station three.

We're also upgrading the locker rooms at the police and fire headquarters, and we'll be replacing the restrooms roof at Gettysburg Park. And an update from this past fiscal year well, this current fiscal year, until June 30. We had the completion of Fire Station 2. Recently, we had a ribbon cutting ceremony. Show Avenue Phase 1, which is from Leonard up to McCullough's complete and and even, I think, believe that traffic signal was running a few weeks ago.

We also had the completion of Village Green Park. And not shown here. I didn't have enough space for all the pictures, but something that we have recently done. It was adding 5,800 linear feet of sidewalk in the neighborhood of Sierra Vista Elementary. And also the widening of Sunnyside Avenue between Third And Fifth.

That was another project we completed. And here's some more projects. We have Letterman Park and Sierra Vista sorry, Sierra Bicentennial Dog Park. We also have some images of annual cape and slurry seal, which is actually currently being done, and improvements at the Gull Canal Trail. It's not shown here also, but we'll be looking into acquire property on the Northwest area for water major facilities needed for future development.

That being said, it concludes my presentation. I'm ready for any questions you may have.

Sorry. Turn that off. There we go. Okay. We're gonna go ahead and open the public hearing. Is the applicant present? Oh, you are the applicant. I'm sorry. My brain. It's been two months. Okay. If we have no questions for staff, ready for a vote? Oh, that's right. My goodness. I'm sorry.

Here we go. Do we have anyone in the floor who would like to speak in favor of this project? Seeing none, anyone in opposition? Very good. We're gonna go ahead and close the public session and bring it back for a vote.

Alright. I'll make a motion

that

we approve the resolution approving the general plan consistency finding for the proposed twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six Community Investment Program or CIP. I'll second.

Okay. I have a motion from commissioner Bedstead and a second from commissioner Abert to approve the resolution. Commissioner Bedstead? Yes. Commissioner Abert? Yes. Commissioner Hatcher?

Yes.

Chair Antuna?

Yes.

Commissioner Hinkle is absent, so resolution is approved four zero one with commissioner Hinkle absent.

Very good. Moving on to item three, consider items associated with oh, thank you. Yeah. Okay. Moving on to item three, consider items associated with 7.45 acres of land located on the Southwest corner of West Herndon And North Peach Avenues.

Alliant Hospitality Inc, owner, r l division, Inc. Applicant. Consider approval for resolution a resolution recommending that the city of Clovis Council adopt an environmental finding of mitigated negative declaration and a mitigated, monitoring and reporting program for R2023Dash004, CUP 2023Dash004, and CUP twenty twenty three dash zero zero five. Consider approval resolution R22023Dash004, a resolution recommending that the Clovis City Council approve a request to rezone 7.45 acres for the R 1 A H single family residential low density zone district to the C Dash P Administration And Professional Office Zone District. Consider approval CUP2023Dash004, a request to approve a four story 108 room hotel, Spring Hill Suites.

And consider approval CUP2023Dash005, a request to approve a four story 242 room hotel with auxiliary dining including alcohol sales, a loft element. Mackenzie Perez report presenting.

Thank you, chair, commissioners. So you will be considering a hotel project at the Southwest Corner Of Peach And Herndon Avenues. As mentioned by the chair, you are considering an environmental assessment for immediate negative decoration, a rezone to redesignate the site from r one eight h to c p, and two CUP applications for two separate hotel buildings on one property, one for a 108 rooms and the other for two forty two. As I mentioned, the property is at the Southwest Corner of Herndon And Peach. On the south end is McGill, which you can see on the aerial surrounded by residential to the South, commercial office to the West, vacant property to the North and east.

So for the rezone application, so the state requires that cities maintain consistent zoning. The property is currently planned for office in our general plan, and the current zoning of R 18 H is not consistent with that office land use designation. Therefore, the applicant is proposing to change that zoning designation to CP so that it is consistent with the office land use of our general plan. There are also two CUPs for the properties. We did this one for each hotel building.

There's a total of 350 rooms. Again, one zero eight for Spring Hill and two forty two for Aloft. The Aloft element does include dining with alcohol service. However, it would be for hotel guests only. Each hotel will include a fitness center, dining, and outdoor pool and lounge areas.

The outdoor areas will be limited to seven to 10PM. There are two points of egress and ingress along McGill Avenue. Vehicle access is restricted off of Herndon Avenue similar to the other operations along Herndon. Parking for the hotel uses is 1.2 stalls per room that would require 420 stalls. The applicant is proposing 358, which is approximately one stall per room.

Typically, parking would be required for ancillary uses. However, the restaurant use that's ancillary for this project is for hotel guests only, and it is conditioned that way. The applicant is requesting a reduction in the parking through the CUP process. The there was analysis done through the traffic study that supported the reduction to one stall per room. Here's just a conceptual site plan showing the area you have Herndon along the southern portion of this slide here, and then you have Peach on the west side of the screen.

But you'll see, the two hotel buildings, on the screen. The one kind of on the top right is the Spring Hill, and then you have the one along really Peach and Herndon, which is the Aloft and Element products. So you'll see the two access points off of McGill. The main entry access point is closest to Peach, and then you have one further west of Cindy Avenue. Another area for the CUP is regarding building heights.

So the CP Zone district does permit a height of 55 feet for hotels. Heights above 55 feet do require approval through the CUP process. Spring Hill is proposed at 57 and a half, and then Aloft is 59 and then seven and a half. The majority of the buildings are under the 55 foot requirement. However, parapets along a portion of the buildings exceed that height limit.

So the applicant is requesting a deviation of the height requirement through the CUP process. So on this screen here, have conceptual elevations. Again, I didn't mention earlier, but the project will be required to go through a separate site plan review for the actual development of the site and elevations. But on the screen here on the top portion, you have Spring Hill, and then on the bottom, you have the aloft element. So you can see 53 feet at the highest point, which is under the 55 foot.

There is the 57 and a half that's for a portion of the building. And then for the aloft and element, you have just under 53 feet for a majority of the building, which is within the 55 foot permitted height. And then a portion of that is at fifty nine seven and a half. There was public notification for the project. It was posted in the business journal on April 25 for the public hearing and the environmental.

Notices were also mailed out to property owners within 600 feet. We did receive one comment letter, and that was included in your packet. There were a few concerns, and I'll outline those, and they're further detailed in the staff report. But first was the use of a hotel. As I mentioned, the CP Zone District, which is consistent with the office land use, does permit hotels subject to a CUP.

The height is also permitted at 55 feet, and while they're proposing some height over for the majority of the structure is under the 55 foot height limit. There was concerns related to traffic. A traffic impact analysis was prepared, and it was determined that the level of service would be similar to existing conditions. It also outlined that the hotel use would generate less trips than a medical office use would during peak hours. We did prepare a mitigated negative declaration for the project that was made available for public review.

We didn't receive any comments associated with that. We do have a mitigation monitoring and reporting program that will be part of the project, and mitigation measures would be applicable. Staff recommends that the planning commission recommend the city council adopt the environmental finding, that you recommend the city council approve the rezone application, and then that the planning commission approve both CUPs for the hotel use contingent upon city council approval of the rezone. That concludes my presentation. I'm available for any questions.

Are there any questions for staff?

I have one question. Sure. If we approve the CUP and the variance above 55 feet, is it part of the site plan review that would govern that only, I'm gonna say, a percentage of the building would exceed as was proposed in the elevation? I guess what safeguard or control is there that we don't say, yeah, you can be over 55 and now all of a sudden the

structure Yeah. So it doesn't call out I mean, I understand what you're saying basically like that they change the elevation where the whole structure is at 60 feet or something like that. Correct. There isn't anything but we can put through the CUP because the CUP is allowing the exception for heights that we limit to make sure the majority of the structure is under the 55 and we're only permitting the portion that was outlined during the presentation. So we could add that in, but right now, yes, it's it's open to 59 feet because those plans are conceptual.

Thank you. Yeah, I think that would be prudent. Okay. Thank you.

Any additional questions of staff? Very good. We're gonna go ahead and open the public hearing. Is the applicant present? Would you like to step up to the podium? State your name and address for the record.

Hi. My name is Bobby Chima. My address is 1450 Shaw Avenue. So for this project, we're presenting a 350 room, three hotel project. Any questions on it you guys may have? Where would you like any information from us by chance?

I'll just ask you to maybe clarify the question I just posed. Are you intending to stick with the elevations that are proposed here?

From my understanding, yes, but let me turn to my architect. He can kind of supply some more information for you. Would you like to go further on that, Bob?

Good evening, members. Robert l Davidson, the architect on the project. We have been working on on the project for two years now, and the elevations come to us as part of the proprietary design effort of the franchise. And so we don't really have any intention to modify the elevations. We believe the building's high enough.

If if if we did that, we're adding cost to the building that's not necessary. And we need would would have to go back and get approval from the the franchise of of, Marriott. So, no, we don't intend to, increase the building height. And I would like to add too that there's there's only a very small percentage of the building that exceeds the 55 foot height. And it's didn't do the math on it, but it's probably down around 15 to 20% of the total overall frontage of the building. So it's a very small amount. Thank you. Are

there any other questions of the applicant? Thank you.

Thank you.

At this time, I'd like to invite public if anyone is wanting to speak in favor of this project. Seeing none, we will move on. Is there anyone in public that would like to speak in a position of this project? Alright. Very well. Seeing none, we're gonna go ahead and close the public hearing and bring it back for discussion.

I went actually and drove past there one of the times I'm in town to do those things today, actually, to kind of look at my big thing is always traffic, you know. And so I think I'm okay with the entry points, exited entry points there. So I don't have a big issue today.

Very good.

One question for you, McKenzie. I know in the staff report it talks about the left turn lane by Peach and Herndon, how it's only a 150 feet long and that that could be made longer to help accommodate. Are there any current plans to make any left turn lanes?

I'll leave that to Chris with our engineering staff to address.

So there are no current plans that I am aware of. But if the project move forward through the site plan review, they could be conditioned for that to extend that left turn lane.

So as of now, you guys don't foresee any

problems? Exactly.

Okay. Thank you. Very

good. Okay. For discussion is complete, then move for a motion. And for the record, we have to do each one independently. Correct?

No. You can make a motion that says that you would approve each of those items, maybe just reference them. But I think the record would be clear enough as long as there's a reference to the planning commission moves to approve each of those items. You can do it in one you can do it in one motion.

Very good. Thank you for the clarification.

We'll try that. Okay. So, I will make a motion with a condition of approval, and the condition of approval being that the variance in height restriction is limited to what is proposed here in the packet tonight. I don't have the exact specifics that I'm referencing, but they are in our packet. And that any variance above and beyond that be brought back here to the commission as a subsequent CUP vote. So I will motion with that condition that we approve items three a items three a b c and d. That's it.

I'll second.

I have a motion from commissioner Bedstead to approve items three a, b, c, and d, and a second from commissioner Hatcher. Commissioner Bedstead? Yes. Commissioner Hatcher?

Yes.

Commissioner Hebert? Yes. And chair Antuno?

Yes.

Commissioner Hinkle is absent. So the motion carries for, let me correct, please, zero one with commissioner Hinkle absent.

Very good. Thank you all for attending. I'd to call this meeting adjourned at 06:36. Until the next time, fine commission meets on June 26.