Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening everyone. This is the regular meeting of the planning commission of the city of Desert Hot Springs for Tuesday, April 14th, 2026. May we have a call to order, please? Or roll call. Commissioner Parker, here. Commissioner Row, present. Commissioner Wagstaff, present. Vice Chair Lombardo, Chairman Nandell present. All right. Um, please rise for the pledge of allegiance and repeat after me. I pledge allegiance to

to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right. Will somebody please make a motion to approve our agenda? And someone second it. I make a motion that we approve our agenda. All right. Do we have a second? I'll second that. All right. May we vote, please?

Motion passes unanimously. Okay. Um hopefully everyone has had a chance to review the planning commission regular meeting minutes. Um can we have a motion to approve and a second? I motion to approve the minutes. I'll second. Okay. Can we vote, please? Motion passes unanimously.

All right. Um it's time now for public comments. Does anyone want to come up for public comments? Uh pursuant to the Brown Act, any person may comment on matters of general interest interest within the subject matter jurisdiction of the planning commission but not listed on the agenda. Do we have any public comments? No. All right. And let's move to our public hearing. Development permit number 25-9, an application for the development of a mechanical supplier warehouse facility. And uh Evalara, our associate planner, would you give us a report, please?

Good evening, everyone. This evening, the planning commission will consider the project modern development submitted under under development permit application DP259. The proposed project is an industrial industrial development from mechanical supplier facility focused on the wholesale and distribution of HVAC components such as vents and registers. The project is located on a 2.52 acre site on San Hasinto Lane. The site is zoned light industrial which permits wholesale and distribution uses by rights and is presently vacant and vegetated. The project proposes a two-story 48,759 ft warehouse facility. The site plan includes loaning areas, on-site parking, including ADA accessible and EB capable spaces, landscaping and related on-site street improvements necessary to support industrial operations. The project is consistent with the intent of the light industrial zoning designation and is appropriately located within an established industrial area. The project provides 46,759 square ft of first floor warehouse space along with approximately 2,000 ft of mezzanine and office space on the second floor. The proposed development incorporates a contemporary industrial design that aligns with city standards. It features durable sliding materials, articulated facades for visual interest, and a two-story office component that adds vertical articulation, and the neutral color palette supports compatibility with the surrounding area. Overall, the project is consistent with the light industrial zoning district and applicable design standards. The project includes perimeter and parking lot landscaping designed to

enhance site aesthetics while meeting water efficient landscaping requirements. The plan features drought tolerant trees, shrubs and accent plantings along with decomposed granite, decorative rock and boulders to complement the desert character. Landscaping is provided along the frontage and within parking areas to soften hardscape edges. All planted materials are low to moderate water use and comply with applicable standards. The landscape pallet incorporates a com combination of drought tolerant trees, shrubs and accent plantings including the sonor and palo verde mulga trees, hybrid fat palm, smooth agave, green desert spoon and boxwood beauty shrubs. Ground treatment includes de composite granite and decorative rock materials as well as strategically placed desert boulders to complement the desert landscape character. The project includes 55 parking spaces including ADA and EV capable styles meeting the city's requirement of 54 spaces. The layout is designed to provide convenient access and support efficient site operations. The project is exempt from SQA pursuant to section 15332 class 32 categorically exempt of the California Environmental Quality Act for infill development projects. This infill project is consistent with the local general plan and zoning requirements and will have insignificant environmental impacts. Staff recommends that the planning commission one certify the SQA notice of exemption and two approve development permit number 25-9 for the development of a mechanical supplier warehouse facility subject to the conditions of approval and findings since the posting of the agenda. The city has not received any comment letters. That concludes my presentation. The applicant is an assistant. Staff members

are available to answer any questions. Thank you. Um, do we have any questions for city staff? Any anyone questions? Okay, then let's open the public hearing. Take testimony from the applicant. Would you like to come up and speak to us? Please push the button on the speaker. Yes. And flip it back to you.

Good evening, commissioners. My name is Gabriel Luhan, GLA Design Group 775. Where do I no? I forgot my address. Palm Desert. I'm in Palm Desert Alpha Cook. Uh I'm the uh designer of the project with the architect's office and I'm here to answer any questions that you may have on the building or the architectural look. I mean, we feel that we are bringing in a state-of-the-art building, a state-of-the-art colors. It's going to look really nice. We have any questions? Any questions for No.

I I just have a couple of questions. Sure. Um they're not so much about landscaping though. Is that okay? Um mechanical supply facility. What is there an industry? What the mechan the mechanical supply of what to whom? Uh air conditioning. And we have the owner here. So I'm going to introduce Mr. Henrik Artonian. He owner come on in so you can explain the business of your Hello everyone. Uh it will be HVAC product. HV HVAC. HVAC product. Yeah. Mostly registers, grills, air moving product basically. Yeah.

So products will be delivered to the warehouse and then you'll sell them to air conditioning companies around here. No, we sell them to wholesalers. To wholesalers? sell yeah we sell them to HVAC suppliers and they sell them to contractors all these product will be imported so I see nothing will be done here so it's all imports uh they come straight from uh overseas and we distribute it over the different states how many employees do you expect to have on start we were just talking to Gabriel about it like few minutes ago we will start with possibly eight or 10 people. Eight or 10.

Yeah. But uh I'm in this business. I have a warehouse in Los Angeles. So uh the plan that we have definitely it will be a lot more than that in a year or so. Will will you try to hire Desert Hot Springs residents? Uh that's the only thing we can do. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody wants to drive from LA to here. So Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We going to hire everybody from here. Yes. Uhhuh. Okay. Um, all right. Does anyone else have questions for the applicant? Yeah, this strictly distribution, correct? Strictly distribution. Yes. Okay. Oh, I got it. Yeah. No manufacturing, no packaging, nothing. You're not

not even a showroom. No. No. Our our customers will be are mostly from other out other states. Okay. Yeah. So no, we have uh packages that we send them as you know to show them what we sell. Right. Okay. I'm a contractor myself. So I understand the business you're in and what you're presenting here. So yeah, we are basically master distribution to distributors of HBAC. Okay. Yeah. All right. Very good. Thank you. Um thank you. Uh, I guess we have no testimony from the public. Do

Oh, come on. Are you in we taking testimony from those in favor or or is a question for your project? Uh, so in terms of introduce yourself.

Hello, my name is Raul Arus. I'm the associate engineer for the city of the hot springs. Um I'm I'm just here as um an observant. I'm not here in my engineering capacity. But uh my question is in terms of um the trucks that are going to be accessing the uh facility, have you done like a a turning radius analysis of like the different types of trucks? Okay, that and that is a good question and that's why we brought our civil engineer. So, let me introduce you to Alan Lavine, our civil engineer. We came ready. Alan,

good evening. Uh, as Gabriel said, my name is Alan Lavine, 76768 Bishop Place, Palm Desert. And uh yes we have studied the turning you didn't ask the question he did but uh we have studied the turning radiuses and everything works not only for the trucks but also we have to consider fire trucks and are you Bertk up here for for waste haulers? Is Bertech your waist hauler up here?

No it is not. Okay. But anyway, trash trucks are trash trucks and they also fall into the category of looking at the various turning radiances radi that are necessary for them to uh to access the project. Do you anticipate a lot of trucks coming and going all day long? That's not one I can answer. Uh coming will be maybe about 10 uh 18 wheelers per month. per month. per month.

But going out will be mostly smaller trucks and uh there will be some uh 18 wheelers also going out. But as you can see the design we have uh both ends. So one is for coming, one is for going. So Mhm. Yeah. But yes, we will have about maybe 10 trucks coming in. Okay, good. From ports straight here. So they will be all 18 mill. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. No, it's not many. So, okay. Answer your questions. I just wanted to ask you,

excuse me, Mr. Chair, members of the commission, if I may interrupt, this is a public hearing currently. Uh, we have some talking at the audience. If Raul would actually like to ask questions of the commission, um, I would suggest that he provide that testimony to the commission. Um, if the commission wants to ask questions and have the applicant answer, that would be up to the commission. So, at this point, um, what I'm hearing right now from the applicant, that is fine. That's great that we have some questions of the applicant regarding the attorney, you know, some of the circulation um, patterns. Um, but with that, if uh, another member of the audience wants to come up and speak, I recommend that that is done after the applicant has a chance to speak. Okay. Any other questions for the applicant? No.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right. Um, do we have any public testimony from anyone in favor? Opposed or neutral? I guess not. Okay. So, no need for applicant rebuttal. So, we'll close the public hearing. Should that's what we should do at this point. Just go ahead and close it. Okay. Planning commission discussion. Anything anything we want to to discuss? Any other questions? No. Okay. All right. Um, does someone want to make a motion? Sure. I move to certify the SQA notice of exemption and approve development permit number 25-9 for the development of a mechanical supplier warehouse facility subject to the conditions of approval and findings. Have a second.

All right. We'll second that. All right. May we take a vote, please.

Motion passes unanimously. All right. Welcome. Congratulations. Thank you very much.

Okay. So, we just go to public comments again now. Okay. And all right, then we'll open for um public comments. Opportunity for members of the public who have not addressed the planning commission on an item which is not on the agenda. Comments are limited to three minutes per speaker. Please state your name and city of residence for the record. Uh um when does the Can you speak can you turn on the microphone and speak into it? Uh when does the time begin? Uh right now. Okay.

You have three minutes. So, um I brought these um these photos. I don't know if you can see them, but um it shows my driveway and at the end of it where you can you can barely see the car that's parked because it's parked 150 ft away. So, um let me tell you a little bit about me. Um I'm at 9044 Cay Deos. I consider myself a rural resident because I put a little manufactured home on one and a half acres and I pushed it really deep as you can see and um you know preserving the land and you know causing as little disruption is very important to me and I'm a plant conservationist and I'm a plant collector too. Um, and I think my project has been very eco-friendly. Um, as eco-friendly as possible. And um, I agree with the twocar garage mandate. Um, because of course cars need to be hidden and people collect junk. Um, when I asked the city why is every new house required to have a twocar garage, those were the two answers I was given. you know, the um you know, to hide the cars and also to um because people collect junk. You know, you've seen houses with a treadmill in the front, but um you can barely see um I think my car is pretty hidden up here. I don't know where to where to point it. Sorry. Um yeah, I don't know where the camera is, but you get the gist. Um is it okay if I put it? And the other issue, well, the biggest issue really is that um because my home ended up being a manufactured home, I had to have a detached twocar garage.

And the detached twocar garage is going to is is a prefab garage, so two prefab structures. And it's going to look completely hideous. It's going to be awful, awful, awful because um uh the garage would sit at the top of a very focal point and it will be extremely visible and um so um so yeah, it's going to be let me see what else I wrote. Sorry about that. Today's tax day, so I did my taxes. I went to work all these things. I'm sorry. But um but yeah, so I really think that a carport fits a lot better with this design. And this allows all my garden to be seen so there's no interruption. So you can see through the um the openness and um and you know the um the carport is very bulky and industrial and it's like bam right there. And whereas like a carport is more subdued and and um I already have, you know, I mean, you've seen u my landscaping that I really plan to do something fun with that. And um other than that, thank you very much. And um yeah, um I want to say one last thing that also if my house was closer to the street, I would not have put a manufactured home. And I'm doing everything I can to hide. So, I stuck out the house. I want to put some trees around there. Uh, probably msquets. Um, so and I think putting a twocar garage is like like calling out the simpler look and more industrial and bulky and uh yeah, thank you.

All right. Thank you for your comments. Okay. Thank you. Okay.

Um, chair and planning commission member reports. Does anyone have anything to report? Community development director report. Uh, just a really quick report for you this evening. Just want to let you know March 30th, city council approved the donation of five vacant parcels to Habitat for Humanity of the Coachella Valley for development of affordable housing. Habitat of Humanity is a nonprofit organization that builds homes using the self-help approach for lowerincome families. Um, I know a couple m a couple meetings ago we reported on our arena objectives and how we are be behind on the affordable housing targets, but this will help us get a little bit closer. So that's it. That's it. Okay. Anything else?

Then we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.