Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

City of Daly City. And before we do the Pledge of the Flag, let me explain to you some of our participation rules. There's three ways that you can submit public comments. You can send them in writing by the meeting date, submit them in writing during the meeting, or you can attend the meeting live. You can email your comments directly to the Planner's office. Public comments can also be emailed to the planning commissioner public comments subsection. The submitted things that went to the website basically will be basically shown to the commissioners. However, if they're not received by 4 p.m. of the meeting date, it will be provided to commissioners prior, but the comments will not be read aloud at the meeting. To speak at this meeting in person, please complete a speaker card. The speaker cards are in the back of the room. And if you fill one of those out and submit it to our staff at the beginning of the meeting, identifying what item you would like to address, we'll be happy to recognize you at that particular time. So if there's persons with disabilities who require auxiliary aid or services in attending or participating, Please call the office ahead of time, and if you need anything further, we're happy to help you. But with that, basically, we will open the meeting. I would ask you to please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation,

Thank you. OK. Can we have a roll call, please?

Here.

All right, we have a quorum, so we can proceed with the rest of our agenda and take care of the business tonight. The next item are the minutes for approval of first the meeting of June 2nd, 2026. And they've been submitted to the board members. And so I would ask at this point if there are any additions or corrections to the meeting minutes. No. All right. And is there a motion to approve the minutes for June 2nd?

Aye. Motion for approval.

Thank you. Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed? Okay. Let's move on to the July 7th minutes. Likewise, if you have any additions or corrections that you would like noted, please let me know. All right, hearing none, is there a motion to accept the minutes as submitted?

Yeah, I motion for approval.

Second. Moved and seconded. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed? And we are through that part of the agenda. Good evening, Commissioners. Let the record indicate that the Commissioner has arrived also in this part of our meeting. We do have a quorum and we've moved through the minutes, Ray, up to now public hearings. So that's where we are at this point. So I'll turn this over to staff at this point.

Okay, well the first item on the agenda is a use permit. It's a change of use from an existing retail building to essentially a billiard parlor. This requires a use permit. The planner's Brian Palin, and I'm going to load the presentation. Just give me one minute.

All right, thank you.

Good evening, Commissioners. The item before you this evening is a use permit for a billiards hall located at 6232 Mission Street. The applicant is proposing to use the existing building for a billiards hall that would contain 21 billiard tables, two snooker tables, a foosball table, and one air hockey table. The proposed floor plan includes a customer seating area and television viewing area. The applicant intends to serve packaged snacks and bottled beer for which they will be applying for the required ABC permit. All activities will be conducted fully within the enclosed building. Only minor interior modifications are proposed for the building that was most recently used as a Dollar Tree retail store. The subject property is located between Mission Street and San Jose Avenue, one parcel north of the Mission Street-San Jose Avenue split. The adjacent businesses include the Paws Pets Play Dog Care to the north and the Auto Zone to the south. The open floor plan includes a gaming area with 21 billiard tables, two snooker tables, and a foosball table, and one air hockey table. A customer seating area and a seating counter for the sale of packaged snacks and bottled beer. This is a proposed Mission Street elevation. The staff has added a condition that limits the coverage of the front windows to 25% in order to preserve street visibility to the interior of the building. And on the opposite side the San Jose elevation San Jose Avenue elevation The doors that you see in this photo we have added a condition that these be limited to emergency access only Staff has met with the city attorney's office and police department to discuss the proposal, and this group feels that the proposed use is appropriate with the limitation on the hours of operation. The applicant initially proposed to operate Sunday through Thursday, 12 PM to 1 AM, and Friday through Saturday, 12 PM to 2 AM. Staff suggests the condition of approval that limits the operational hours to 12 a.m. daily and limits the hours for minors under the age of 18 to 8 p.m. weeknights and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. We have also requested or proposed a condition for flush mounted lighting on the underside of the building canopy on the Mission Street elevation and wall pack lighting on the San Jose Avenue elevation. The parking area shall be striped in accordance with the building division requirements. Staff finds that the approval of the proposed project would not be detrimental to the health, safety, morals, comfort, and general welfare of persons residing in or working in the neighborhood, or be injurious or detrimental to the property and improvements in the neighborhood or the general welfare of the city. Approval of the proposed billiards hall is complementary to adjacent businesses and compatible with the commercial mixed-use zoning district. staff has determined that the proposed billiard hall use is subject to the same parking space requirement for general retail, one space for each 300 square feet. Since the existing building is therefore legal non-conforming, so too would be any business that occupies the building with the same parking requirement. The proposed use does not, therefore, exacerbate an existing condition and shall, too, be considered legal non-conforming with regard to parking. Staff recommendation is to forward use permit UPR 626-17087 to the City Council for approval. And that completes my presentation.

All right. Thank you. At this point, we'll conduct a public hearing so members of the public can address the board on this. And then after that, commissioners, you'll have an opportunity to speak as well. So I have four requests at this point. I have Henry Canouf. Did I pronounce that correctly, sir? Yes, sir. Please come on up.

Yeah, exactly. Good evening. Good evening. How are you guys doing? We're good. There we are.

Okay.

All right. Thanks for having us. Good evening to everybody. Going off of what Brian said, we are totally looking forward to this project. We'd like to make it as family-friendly as possible. We're not looking to have it as a loud or obnoxious event. part of the community, but something that brings in joy to all families, all ages. As far as the conditions, we're willing to accept all of them. We'd like to comply with the city as best as we can. For conditions 8 and 10, which are the hours and the security, We were actually looking to hold condition eight and request that minors are able to stay until 10 p.m. every night. We believe that there's a lot of families that come after work, dinner, extracurricular activities, a lot of high schoolers in that area. And we were looking to host them past 10 p.m. or until 10 p.m. and not until 8 p.m. As far as the closing hours, we are very comfortable with complying at the 12 a.m. range, but we were asking if we can respectfully open until 1 a.m. on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Other than that, we're extremely excited. And actually, we've been speaking to a lady named Maybel. She... We're working very closely with her that if we do move forward with this project we'd like to improve this space and actually open it up for the festival on October 17th for additional parking for the community as well as if we they wanted a host or assemble anybody within the actual building we'd like to improve the space for them so that way the activities and the festival can conjure near us as the community. But other than that I think Brian summed it up and I really appreciate you guys' time.

All right. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let me ask then our next speaker to be George.

Good evening, everybody. My name is George Knouf. I'm here with my family, my wife, Rose, and my son, Henry, and my son, Christian. We're here to propose this Billiards 6232 to you guys, and we're hoping for an approval. I first want to thank Brian for being very helpful throughout this process and everybody else in planning department as well. Our goal is very simple. We want to take this vacant building and turn it into a family business and We're hoping to keep it as clean and welcoming as we can in the area. Our focus is to have pool tables and snooker tables and some arcade. We would actually like to hire a security person to keep everything safe and cool for everybody. This is not in any way going to be anywhere near a nightclub or anything from that perspective. It's just going to be a pool hall. That's all. Just serving beer and soft drinks and that's all we want to do. We appreciate this meeting and we would hope that you guys would approve this idea and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Let me ask Ben Gilliam to speak if you would like.

Good evening. Thank you so much. My name is Ben Gilliam and I'm with Cobalt Banker Commercial. I'm also a lucky resident of Westlake and Daly City and just loving living here. We represent the landlord for 6232 Mission and so I'm appearing to speak favor of the approval of this use permit just to give you a little bit of background I started working with the canoes back in April and was very impressed with the way that they went about their business they're a good local entrepreneurial family and I think just the right fit for this kind of building and so I just wanted to stand and convey the landlord support for that as well and here to answer any questions you might have to thank you

Then I have Jay Alejandro Matiel. Good evening. Hi, good evening.

Hi, my name is Alejandro Montiel. I also go by Lex Montiel. I'm pretty active in the community in San Francisco. I own the San Francisco Eagle Bar. I'm the founder of the Eagle Plaza. I work directly with the office of the mayor's office, and I'm also a commissioner there. But also, I'm a resident of Westlake in Delhi City. So that's where I live, and we've been living here very happy. for four years. I'm also a broker with Coldwell Banker Commercial, and I'm part of the team that leads this property. I also have a license, a contractor license, and I also have a company for that. So I do a lot of work around in the area, and the way that I have engaged with the Canoes, I think they're very professional, like a professional family, and I want to support as a resident and also as part of the team representing the landlord for this property that can really bring something nice and positive to the community.

Thank you very much. My pleasure. Appreciate that. Those are the four cards that I've received. So at this point, let me open it up to the commissioners who may have questions. They may have some questions for you as well. So who would like to speak first? I'll start first.

Honestly, I will start off. I really love this idea with a family-friendly recreational area for the community. I think that's what we really need, especially in the mission area. You know, the borderline of San Francisco. But I do have a few questions. What is, like, the anticipated maximum occupancy of the facility or maximum people you have in the building or you're expecting by the fire code? Oh, no worries. No worries. I just want to make sure. Yeah. Okay. No, no worries. Okay. Thank you.

You can use the microphone.

No, we're fine.

Maybe some more people waiting.

Yeah.

Maybe 100 to 120.

Okay, no, it's good to know, you know. Also, if there's any, like, noise complaints, you know, sometimes people hang out outside, you know, they're, like, smoking, drinking. How would you...

is that it has a side parking lot attached to it with an entry separating the building from the main entrance. So if people want to stand around the building, they don't have to be on the front. They can be on the side of the building where they're not creating any noise to residents or other buildings. As well as, besides the side parking lot,

Sounds good.

A very strict rule with freelancing.

We don't really want anybody to conjure outside, which is why we're going to include the most amount of seating that we can within the space without bothering the pool table space. So we don't really plan on having any music outside of the building.

Therefore, there should be nobody conjuring outside only from the seating.

Sounds good. Thank you. So there will be music inside, correct? Amplified music? Okay, no worries. Yeah, I understand you. Thank you for your answers.

Thank you, Commissioner Penice.

Yes, go ahead. May I add to what he was saying? Yeah. So once they secure their approvals, they will be having a professional set of construction drawings prepared and submitted to the building division for a change of use permit. And that will include the occupancy ratings and limits per the fire code. So I didn't really expect that they would have an exact number at this point because on my advice, they were holding off to have those drawings drawn up until they secured their approvals.

Yeah, thank you. Step by step. Okay.

And one other question before I pass it on. It seems to me like we're not really like in the middle of a neighborhood with houses. Am I correct? I mean, there's businesses and all around. So we don't anticipate that you would be interfering with homeowners that are like right next door or anything.

I'm sure that was considered. I mean, there's residential across San Jose Avenue. Yeah, on the other side. That's the rear area. But it's not real close. And we've tried to place some conditions of approval that prevent loitering outside. Smoking is not allowed within 50 feet of the entrance of any public building. And the applicants are aware of that and will need to post signs that make the people that are patronizing their business aware of that regulation.

And they technically have a parking lot right in front, too, as well, at night. Because all the businesses are closed. On their building and across the street, there's a whole row. That's right. Yeah.

Commissioner Couture, you had questions?

Yes. Hello. So I guess I do have a few questions for the applicant. Do you have previous experience with a billiard hall like this?

Better use the microphone.

I moved to the United States 23 years ago, and we have experience as a family running such businesses in my home country.

I came here. I changed my whole direction in life because that was not something accessible to us. We own another business here in the city. We own a registration service office up the street on Washington Street. We've been there for six years. And before that, we owned... gas station in the state of Oregon. We own a retail liquor store and a deli in San Francisco. So we are very experienced in the retail business and the entertainment business from before.

Got it. Okay. Thank you. So for the conditions of approval number 10 regarding door security, you're proposing, you know, after you've met with staff about the operating hours, you're requesting that the hours be changed. And, of course, that needs to be reviewed with staff. Because my concern... I mean... Are you going to have door security throughout the new time, if approved, is my question. May I answer that? Yes.

So the applicant's initial proposal was for longer hours. And then after planning staff met with the police department and the city attorney, we placed the condition with the more limiting hours. And the applicant is asking if we could come to a compromise somewhere in between the two extremes there. So I think if that is something that the Planning Commission is up to considering, then maybe the Planning Commission could direct staff to reconsider that with the city attorney and the police department before we take it to the city council.

Yeah, I think, you know, 8 p.m. is quite early, even for, you know, for minors, right? So 10, I think, is reasonable. 1, 1 a.m., I mean, my opinion, I think it's reasonable. I just want to make sure that there's door security.

Yeah, and that was the idea from the very beginning. We want to have a security person that's there in the late hours, yes. Yes, of course. Licensed security, of course.

Thank you. No problem.

Thank you so much. Mr. Chairman, I would like to piggyback on that statement of Commissioner Sherrill. You know, 8 o'clock is too early. I'm just starting that day. Because I would say that 12 o'clock will be okay because Modern technology now, you have the camera, you have a lot of the gadgets that you can. Yeah, we have a security guard. No, to me, you know, when I was in college, to be honest with you, after the school, sometimes we have friends in the Philippines, I remember. We go to Billiard Hall.

Just for fun.

It's a good recreational outlet, actually. My only question is, will you provide drinks here, or what kind of drinks are you going to? It's nice to be playing billiards, especially drinking beer.

I love it, to be honest with you. Bottled beer and soft drinks. Yes, sir. No hard liquor.

So, Mr. Chairman, in case the recommendation is 8 o'clock, I move that it should be 12 o'clock.

They've requested for 10 o'clock for minors.

Oh, 10 o'clock? 10 o'clock for minors. It's early. We'll take the 12. It's okay because, you know, we are supposed to be matured people. Yeah. We are responsible.

And it's going to be very secured.

It's going to be very safe. We are living in the city wherein public safety is always our paramount concern. Yes, absolutely. So at least... You can say that we are safe here. Why 8 o'clock or 10 o'clock? You're giving them... Minors. That's just for minors. That's why I'm moving to make it 12 o'clock, 10 o'clock. Yeah, make it 12 o'clock. Because why in the casino 24 hours? Why here? This is a recreational, right? And it's a business district.

It's a good argument because it's a business district.

For as long as you have this public safety is well in place, like the camera or security guards. Yes, of course. Why 10 o'clock? To me, why the casino is 24 hours? So what's the difference?

That's my logic, Your Honor. Just to be clear, the applicant is requesting that the hours for minors be modified from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Well, because we used to play, I used to play billiard, that's why I know.

Because sometimes it's exciting. Can we extend it to another hour or something like that?

Well, right now we're talking about children, okay? So we're not talking about adults. This is just children at 10 o'clock. 18 or under people.

10 children, probably minor, below 18 years old could be 10 o'clock. But for all adults, it could be 12 o'clock. Thank you very much. That's my point.

Thank you. They're also requesting that the midnight recommendation be moved to 1 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Why not? Why not? If they can allow the state can allow the casino for 24 hours, why not this recreation now? It's better.

I think we get it. I like that idea, Ray. Yeah.

I'm just being pragmatic here, Your Honor, because we want to let the people enjoy in Daly City. We don't have too much recreation except the bowling. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, recreation is very important.

So I'm his wife, and we have been in business. My name is Rose.

And we have been in business with Daily City. I've lived here for 40 years, my whole life. And one thing is that I do agree. We don't have, so my kids have been, I have four kids. These are my oldest two and I have two younger ones. And we really don't have any recreational things for young adults. So these young adults, even our school systems here, don't have too many sports where after where we have to go outside of town for us to, you know, to do things with them. So having a billiards where you can have minors to come in and do something and just be part of like a small community. We also go to church here in Daly City, St. George, which opened a few years ago. So there's a lot of minors that don't know what to do besides go out to eat or to the mall. And there's a billiards down the street, but it's really not safe. And it's like, this is for older people. So our main thing is having kids and having four boys. What are you supposed to do with them when it's cold? So this is one thing that we actually were really excited about, even my younger kids are excited about, because mom, there's somewhere to go after work. And I do agree, 10 o'clock, because by the time they come home, homework, sports, it's already 8. If they go out, they play an hour or two. That way we can have more of a community where these kids are not just out in the streets doing nothing. So, thank you.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you. My name is Rose. Canouf. Yeah.

My kids played for the Greek teams against St. George.

Another question, Your Honor. Can you stay there? Yes. You know, sometimes when I play billiard, sometimes we have betting. How would you know that there is betting? Sometimes, OK, we bet $20. Whoever wins it gets $20. Something like that. Or drinks, something like that. There is always a price for victory.

GABRIEL SANCHEZ- Back home used to be that the loser will pay. But we're not going to be allowing any gambling on private land.

Yeah, I know. Because a lot of billiards, even in the East Coast, I was in also.

GABRIEL SANCHEZ- There's sharks.

In Boston, I can see no betting allowed, but everybody's betting. You wouldn't know. Sorry, Ray. I forget what it is. Sorry, I have one more question. I just claimed my time. The location is in, do you think it's too small location for you?

No, the size is very good for 23 tables.

Because there are instances... Even in some locations, there are days that we need more tables, something like that.

Yeah, but the good part about this space is that it has no posts. So the layout of the tables is going to be very comfortable, and there's not going to be, you know...

Is this used to be the Dollar Tree? No, the Goldilocks? Is this the Goldilocks? Right next to Goldilocks. Because Goldilocks is gone. I don't understand.

I have a question. Will you ever host tournaments, private parties, or corporate events in your event space? Yes, we would. Maybe Tom Norris could hold his fundraising campaign for city council there. We'll host you guys the first time free. How about that? There you go.

That was my only question. Thank you.

Do you have a name that you're thinking of? No, yeah.

We're obviously very excited. Well, if you're excited, we have to start thinking about a good game for it, a name for it. Because the whole time the stress was building about this meeting and how it's going to go because I have never been to a meeting like this. Yeah. Now that we are very comfortable and we're on the same page, yeah, we're going to go home and start figuring out a name.

I think you've got to understand that we're very comfortable because we see you guys. This is a family. Oh, thank you so much.

That makes a big difference. Thank you so much.

When you have people that are local here and it's a family-run business, you want it to be successful, you want it to be good, and so that's important to us also. Thank you so much.

Mr. Chairman. Did you know that the world champion in billiard is a Filipino? Yes.

I watch him all the time.

I think you have to put his picture up there. The shark, you know. Watch out for this guy.

When are you going to start in case this is approved? Well, we are waiting for this approval so we can have Mr.. Lex Start the because we can we can ask the chairman to be

cutting the ribbon. We'll come.

The Chamber of Commerce will be there.

Hopefully by the time of the festival, right top of the hill.

Hopefully before because we're actually running out of time. We started this process about three months ago. And we're going to start paying rent without operating. And so we're hoping for you guys to expedite this as fast as possible. Let us know what you need.

yeah that would be a perfect ground opening the whole community city i would love to see you guys open to cut the ribbon yeah to keep that in mind yeah all right well um if there aren't any questions is there a uh motion to adopt the funding as outlined

affirm the environmental assessment and approve a use permit UPR 062617087, subject to the conditions of approval. However, with our modification that a youth could be until 10 o'clock and still at 8, and that the closing hours would be 1 o'clock, and that would be the recommendations that we would make to the council. Is there such a motion?

I motion for approval.

Second.

Moved and seconded.

Can we have a roll call, please?

Yes.

Nurse? Aye.

Yes.

Yes.

The motions carry. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Good luck.

Congrats. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, staff, for doing a good job on this.

Thank you very much. And this will go to the city council also.

Yes, it's going to go to the city council next. Ours is a recommendation to the council. The council will take it up on their agenda, and then they have the final decision.

When is it going to the council? Well, normally it would be the 28th. We might be able to do it the 14th. We'll see. 30 seconds. 30 seconds. I think it's the 26th. It's the second or fourth month. We're going to make it next week.

Okay, so then it's a week later.

It's the 28th? Yeah. No problem.

The 28th, yeah. We might be able to do it on the 14th. We'll see.

We can't. Is there no way we can expedite it so we can be hopefully open for this? Yeah, they can do this. You're the girl. Yeah, take it under consideration. Yeah. Okay, we appreciate that.

Monday they have the meeting. So it can be.

The city council meets on the second and fourth Mondays, but typically it's only once a month, but sometimes. to get them to do it on the 14th also. So we're gonna work on that.

We appreciate it.

It sounds like it would be more likely to be the 28th, but if we can expedite it and get it on the agenda.

I would really appreciate it.

Yeah.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Good luck.

Yeah. Nice to meet you.

Thank you so much.

Bye. Okay. We have nothing other than any public appearances or staff communications. Do we have any?

No staff communications.

All right. So then if there is nothing further, is there a motion to adjourn?

All right, motion to, Ray, sorry, excuse me. Mr. Chairman, I would like to, just to say something.

All right.

Before we adjourn.

Yes.

I would like to take this opportunity to give my deepest condolences to Teresa Papua for the demise of her father recently. Oh, I didn't know that. Our sympathy to the family of Teresa Papua. Thank you very much.

Well, if you'd like, we can make a motion to adjourn the meeting in his memory, if you like.

Yeah, I move to adjourn in memory of the father of, I don't know the name, Teresa Papua.

All right.

Thank you.

Second?

Yes, I second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye, yeah.

All right, then that's it for tonight. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Good job. How are you? All right.

Let's get together one of these days.

Here's the names of the people who appeared tonight.

How are you?

Good, Ray. That's going to be very nice. Lunchtime. They're nice people. You know, you want to support them. Tomorrow? Not tomorrow. Okay. You know what? You can just tell.

They're not going to know what you're fooling around with. Okay, what time?

Yeah.

Go to the lunch. I have another spot. I have three.

They know how it is. Okay. You're looking good. Thank you. I like that. Yeah, I think you could do it.

It's possible.