Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

2026 at 6 PM, and we'll start with the land acknowledgement. We honor, respect, and acknowledge the Elk Grove First Inhabitants, the Plain Miwok, who lived as sovereign caretakers of this land and these waterways since the time in memorial. We commemorate and advocate for their descendants, the Wilton-Recheria Tribe, the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County who endure because of the bravery, resilience, and determination of their ancestors, tribal members, and leaders. Please silence your electronics and cell phones at this time. And the clerk will read the customary greeting, please.

The outcome of planning commission welcomes, appreciates, and encourages participation in the meetings. The commission reserves the right to reasonably limit the total time for public comment on any particular agenda item, as it may deem necessary. If you wish to address the commission during the meeting, please complete a speaker card and give it to the clerk prior to consideration of the agenda item.

Thank you. Can you please call the roll call, please?

Commissioner Sandra Poole.

Present.

Commissioner Suman Singha. Present. Vice Chair Verandar Singh.

Present.

Chair Oscar O'Connor.

Present.

Commissioner Juan Fernandez absent.

Thank you. I invite Commissioner Poole to please lead us on the Pledge of Allegiance.

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.

Please join me in a moment of silence. We need approval for the agenda. Did everybody get a chance to read it? And if everybody is okay with it, I will need a motion and a second, please.

Mr. Chair, I move for approval of the agenda as presented.

Second.

Thank you. Any, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? That passes, thank you. Members of the audience may comment on any item not on the agenda that is of interest to the public and within the jurisdiction of the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission cannot take any action on non-agenda items raised under public comment until the matter has been specifically included in the agenda as an action item. The general public comments at this time, do we have any speakers?

No speakers.

Okay, so I close the public comments and there are no calendar items. So, Clark, can you please call the first item?

Item 5.1, Elk Grove Subaru Amendment PLNG 26-028.

Good evening, Chair Ocon, members of the Elk Grove City Planning Commission. Antonio Ablog here to present to you the Elk Grove Subaru Amendment Project. This project consists of a major design review amendment for the previously approved Elk Grove Subaru project. This consists of architectural updates to an approximately 56,000 square foot two-story Subaru automobile dealership within the Elk Grove Auto Mall. And the project will continue to contain associated site improvements, including parking, vehicle storage, landscaping, lighting, and compliance with the city's climate action plan known as the Climate Compass. The project is located in the Elk Grove Auto Mall at the corner of Laguna Grove Drive and Auto Passage Drive. This project site is approximately 8.71 acres and is currently used for auto storage for the dealerships. The zone of the site is auto center. This is in the Laguna Ridge specific plan area with a general plan designation of regional commercial. Some of you may remember this project coming to the Planning Commission last fall. In October of 2025, the Elk Grove Planning Commission approved the original Elk Grove Subaru dealership project That was a major design review for the 56,000 square foot Subaru dealership. As part of that dealership included a showroom, offices, parts counter, and service facilities, including 30 service bays within that structure. There would be 87... parking stalls along with 861 vehicle storage spaces. And access to the site was via three driveways, and that would include emergency access. There was also associated landscaping, lighting, and a water quality basin approved with that site plan. As far as the amendment proposal to you tonight, this amendment is based on Subaru's update of its dealership design and branding. That was subsequent to the 2025 approval. The amendment modifies the approved exterior elevations to match this new Subaru design direction. There's really no substantive changes to the building itself, the building footprint itself, or the site plan, site access, circulation, parking, and vehicle storage do remain as similar to the original approval. Furthermore, development intensity remains unchanged. The floor area ratio or the intensity of development on the site remains at .014, which is consistent with the general plan ratio. Before you on the screen, you can see the original approval on top and the proposed elevations on the bottom of the screen. This is just the different sides, the south elevation, both what was previously approved on the left and the proposed on the right. And then for the less visible elevations, the north and west, you can see the proposed elevations on the screen. And again, no substantive changes on the site plan. You can see the rendering of the proposed architecture on the screen. Still maintains high quality materials, high quality design, just with a more, I'd call it a retro feel instead of more modern like some of the other dealerships. but they still do use high quality materials, faux stone cladding with concrete masonry, aluminum composite materials with applied faux wood finishes. All that combines for quality architecture like all the other dealerships that we hold to the same design standards. I do want to bring to the attention the conditions of approval update for the commission. The review of the project was based on our new climate compass. That's what we based our analysis on. However, there was a clerical error. Condition 20 references the prior climate action plan. Ostensibly, the way the project meets the greenhouse gas emission Requirement is still the same, however the references in the climate compass are updated and you see that in the updated condition of approval of the right still requires compliance with the California building code energy standards and also compliance with construction emission standards and along with electric vehicle charging. So it's just different references. So those have been updated in the updated condition of approval. With that, environmental analysis has been determined that no further environmental review is required pursuant to CEQA section 15162, based on the Laguna Ridge environmental impact report and also CEQA section 15183 consistency with the general plan. With that, staff recommends that the Planning Commission find no further environmental review as necessary pursuant to those CEQA sections 15162 and 15183. and approve a major design review amendment for the Elk Grove Subaru amendment project with the updated condition of approval 20 based on the findings and subject to the conditions of approval included in the resolution that was with your staff report. That concludes my presentation and we do have a representative of Subaru here tonight should you have any questions.

Thank you Antonio. Any questions for staff? Thank you. So I declare the public hearing open, and I invite the applicant to speak if he wish to.

I guess that's me. Do I come up here?

Yeah. Okay. I'm Charlie Zink. I'm the general manager of the Subaru dealership. I just want to say I've been here since October 1st to 25, so I'm fairly new to it. And since I've been here, it has been. An amazing response of people super excited to get this new facility and we have an opportunity to be the very 1st in the country to have this new facility here in Elk Grove. Like, it's a very. amazing honor to have that opportunity here so i think we're excited to get it going and i don't know the sooner the approval happens the sooner ground breaks sooner customers get excited all the people around el grove our employees um it's exciting where we're at right now so i just wanted to pass that along i get it every day from every single customer and every single employee about when are we getting it when are we getting it are we going to be the first and i think we have an opportunity to be there now so that's it Once you break ground, how long do you think it's gonna take to? If we break ground by November, I've been told we'll be done by January of 28. Yeah. That's nice. Not too far.

Yeah. Any questions? Well, thank you and good luck. Thank you. Okay, I'll open the public comment opportunity. Do we have any speakers?

No speakers.

So close the public comment and hear the public hearing close. Do we have any deliberation on this matter? If not, I would like to hear a motion and a second.

Chair, I move to adopt a resolution finding that no further environmental review is required under state CEQA guidelines sections 15162 and 15183 and approving the major design review for the Elk Grove Subaru Amendment Project PLNG 26-028 based on the findings and subject to the conditions of approval contained in the draft resolution.

Does that motion include the revision to condition 20 included in the PowerPoint presentation?

Yes, I didn't have that on my document to read that off, but yes, it does include it, yes, thank you. Second.

So first and second, all those in favor?

Aye.

Opposed? So it passes. Thank you, now we'll go to, if there's no regular agenda items on this agenda, we'll go to the director's report.

Good evening, Chair and Commissioners. Christopher Jordan, Community Development Director. Running through the list for you. At next week's council meeting, the council will consider the personal storage moratorium, which you heard two weeks ago. So that is on for the agenda. Following up for September on your docket, we do have one confirmed item for September 3rd. This is the mural that's down on the Science Center building in Old Town for Kyle Larson. It is due for an approval, actually. And after the fact, so we'll be considering that on the third. You should have your packets very soon if they're not already in your hands. And then we're doing final reviews on one matter for September 17th. This is the Summer Flats Project. Not to be confused with Summer Villas. They have similar names and the same applicant, but they are very much different. Summer Flats is also along Waterman, but it is south of Bond Road between, just a little bit north of, actually, basically directly across the street from Jack Hill Cemetery. where summer villas is up at the corner at sheldon and waterman so it is not the sheldon and waterman project it is the one by jack hill um so that um again we're finalizing that one and hope to have it for you on for the 17th um with that we have another nothing else immediately coming up to highlight so available for questions if you have them thank you cj

Do we have any other Planning Commission business matters? Well, having none, we'll adjourn the meeting at 6.14. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, staff and clerk, for your help.