Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

One, it's six o'clock and this is the Fresno Planning Commission meeting. Can we take roll, please?

Commissioner Holt? Commissioner Giles? Commissioner Diaz?

Here.

Commissioner Calandra? Commissioner Shurgill? Vice Chair Laiday? Chair Bray, here.

Okay, we'll begin the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand.

The Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, I'll read the procedures. This meeting is being conducted in person and electronically. For each matter considered by the commission, there will first be a staff presentation followed by a presentation from the project applicant. Testimony from supporters of the project will then be taken followed by testimony from those in opposition. The applicant will have the right to a final rebuttal presentation prior to closing the public hearing. In accordance with Section 13 of Article 2 of the Planning Commission rules and regulations governing the length of public debate, all public testimony from those in support and in opposition of the project will be limited to three minutes per person. The three lights on the podium next to the microphone will indicate the amount of time remaining for the speaker. The green light will be turned on when the speaker begins. The yellow light will come on with a soft bell ring when one minute is remaining. The speaker should be completing the testimony by the time the red light comes on with a final bell indicating that time has expired. All in-person public testimony must be presented to the Commission at the podium. Any testimony that references race, religion, ethnicity, economic status, national origin, or any other classification protected under state or federal law in a derogatory manner shall be deemed irrelevant and will not be considered by the Commission in making its land use determinations. If you challenge these land use matters in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised in oral or written testimony or before the end of the hearing. So we'll start today's meeting with approval of the agenda. Are there any changes?

Good evening, Chair Bray, members of the Planning Commission. I'm Ms. Atreya with the Planning and Development Department. No changes to the agenda. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the agenda? Oh, do any commissioners have changes? Got that part. Okay, so there was a motion to approve a second. Okay, there's a motion to approve by Commissioner Diaz, seconded by Commissioner Calandra. So I think we can just take a vote. So all those in favor? Aye. If you're not in favor, say nay. Motion passes. A will now go out to the public. We've got a little bit of a change this time. Would any members of the public like to provide comment on the consent calendar or on tonight's workshop regarding that Southeast Development Area specific plan? So if you have any comments on the SATA plan, we'd like to have them now rather than at the end of the workshop. Are there any comments? OK.

Yes, sure. I have a comment.

Oh, sorry. Okay. I'll move this closer. Is that better? Okay. I said we'll go out to the public, and if any members of the public would like to comment on the consent calendar or the workshop on the SATA plan at the end, now's the time to do your comments on that. Does anyone have comments on that? Okay, seeing none. Can I have a motion to approve the consent calendar? Okay, second. Okay, we have a motion by Commissioner Lide to approve the consent calendar and a second by Commissioner Calandra. Can we have a vote on that please? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. Do we have any reports by commissioners?

All right, I just want to make a quick comment about pay now, pay later. I'm super impressed with Shields Avenue. I had an opportunity to speak to numerous neighbors because I usually walk around the neighborhood, talk to a lot of people, mingle with a lot of people at the park, at our schools. that will that shield set shields and brawley all the way up to shields and by 99 area that was the worst looking street ever but now if you ever travel there it's it is one of the best looking streets so just want to throw a shout out to mere dire for that and and you know it's it's working our streets are getting fixed you know we talk about infrastructure so you know building new things well we also need to improve our roads so uh so thank you for uh on behalf of the neighbors they wanted me to say this on behalf of the neighbors and the community there are thousands of people who travel through that shields avenue west of 99 they're very impressed so they said just keep up the good work thank you

Thank you, Commissioner Shergo. Does anyone else have a report? Okay. We'll move to continued matters. 8A ID 261033 has been continued to August 19th, 2026, as has 7B ID 261034. So we'll move on to new matters. It's a workshop on the Southeast development area specific plan.

So as, as Israel gets set up, I just wanted to let the commission know that while we have that the hearing for SEDA will be on August 19th. We thought it was a good opportunity for the commissioners to have a refresher on our general plan, specific plans generally, and then on this particular plan, just to really refresh the information for you. So this presentation will be presented by our planning manager, Israel Trejo, and our planning supervisor, Adrian Asadurian.

All right, good evening again, commissioners, Israel Trejo, Planning and Development Department. Tonight, before you, we have a workshop, as noted on the screen, on the Southeast Development Area Specific Plan, as well as the Related Environmental Impact Report. Before I get into the presentation, I would just like to, again, reiterate that this is a workshop and that the actual public hearing for this project will be in two weeks. So on August 19th at that hearing, the planning commissioners will make a recommendation to the city council. This workshop is an opportunity for the commissioners to better understand the SEDA plan. Also, as Jennifer mentioned, would also like to introduce Adrian Asadorian, supervising planner, who will give the majority of this presentation. all right just a high level uh uh view of what a uh what is a general plan so before we get into the the actual specifics of the the sata plan i just wanted to provide an overview and background on some important planning documents that include preparation of the specific plan provide an overview of the requirements of specific plans and the subsequent environmental analysis that is required to accompany these documents. Again, first start with a high level review of what is a general plan. So oftentimes a general plan is called a constitution for each of the respective cities in California. General plan is a requirement of state law. There are various plans and policies outlined within said general plan. And they basically, they shape the growth for a city. There are eight chapters that are required within a general plan. Typically cities have more. Those chapters include land use, circulation, housing, conservation, open space, noise, safety, and environmental justice. So those eight chapters are requirement of state law to be covered within a general plan. So all properties within the jurisdiction's sphere of influence are included in the long-term vision and analysis of a general plan. I do have an exhibit later on in this presentation showing the general plan as well as the sphere of influence for the City of Fresno. So as shown here on this slide, the general plan for the city of Fresno was adopted in December of 2014. So this slide here shows the general plan and circulation element of the city of Fresno. And so the large, or the heavy, dark boundary kind of wrapping around these colored parcels throughout the city, that's the sphere of influence. And I wanted to define what a sphere of influence is. So a sphere of influence is a legally defined area that designates the probable physical boundaries and service area of a city. The core purpose of a sphere of influence is that it outlines where a city expects to expand and provide services next. So as you can see, kind of hard to see, But on the bottom right-hand area of this exhibit is the Southeast Development Area. It currently has land use designations. Most of those designations are similar to what's proposed within the Southeast Development Area specific plan. so uh next is what is a specific plan so here we'll provide an overview on specific plans so the plan presented to you today is a specific plan for the southeast development area but we'd like to touch on what a specific plan is and the subsequent requirements that accompany these plans so specific plans are intended to address a smaller area within a city's jurisdiction for example, the Tower District or West Area Neighborhoods specific planning. Both of those plans, specific plans, recently came to the Planning Commission, were recently adopted by the City of Fresno City Council. Specific plans assist in implementing the goals and objectives identified in the general plan on a more detailed level by identifying allowable uses on sites within a specific area. So as noted on the screen here, just to show a few, the city has a number of specific plans adopted by the city, all of which assist in implementation of the general plan. We have the Southwest Fresno Specific Plan, Fulton Corridor Specific Plan, Tower District Specific Plan, and West Area Neighborhood Specific Plan. With that, I'd like to hand it to Adrian, who will go over the rest of this presentation. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening, commissioners. Adrian Azador and Gilbert with the planning and development department. So now that we've provided an overview on general plans and specific plans, we wanted to share some planning history going back about half a century. That is really important for establishing the context for the Southeast development area. So before it was even called SATA, one of the first general plans adopted by the city of Fresno, the 1958 Fresno general plan identified the area to accommodate growth and forecast residents living between Easton on the South Clovis to the North Belmont country club to the East and Kearney park to the West. The plan estimated that population would increase from 160,000 to 400,000 in 1978. In the 60s and 70s, Fresno and Clovis began collaborative planning for the metropolitan area, and there was additional discussion regarding the southeast area as a future growth area. This included the city extending as far east as McCall Avenue and identifying Temperance Avenue as within the path of growth. The Fresno-Clovis partnership continued with the 1974 Metropolitan General Plan, which included additional standards for growth management, including adopting a five-year urban growth management plan to control the pattern and timing of growth on the city's outer edge. The 1984 General Plan was the first to identify expanding beyond city limits to meet the city's need for planned growth. This general plan also identified the southeast growth area within it. It identified a holding capacity within a portion of what is now SEDA of over 30,500 new residents. Okay. In the 2002 general plan, the southeast growth area was formerly depicted as a new proposed growth area in order to accommodate a growing population. The area was approved by the local agency formation commission, otherwise known as LAFCO, for incorporation into the city's sphere of influence in 2006, by resolution number USOI-144. A specific plan for SEGA was developed with robust community outreach and an environmental impact report was started for this plan. However, the plan was set aside due to the recession. In 2014, the city adopted the current Fresno General Plan. land use concepts from the draft Sega specific plan were incorporated into the general plan and the area was renamed the Southeast development area, otherwise known as Seda. And like the Sega, the Seda specific plan has a total capacity of up to 45,000 dwelling units on approximately 9,000 acres. The general plan identified approximately one-third of those units to be built within its horizon year of 2035, with the remaining build-out to occur after that time. And here we have the SATA-specific plan boundary. The full plan area includes 9,000 acres generally bound by the Gould Canal on the north, McCall and Highland on the east, Jensen and North on the South and Temperance and Maniwawa on the West. And I do wanna note the area outlined in red is identified as South Seda. This is proposed as phase one per council direction. And while the entire planning area includes all 9,000 acres as established by LAFCO resolution number USOI-144, Development will only be permitted in the South SEDA areas east of Temperance and south of Jensen at the time of planned adoption. And just to touch on South SEDA a bit further, South SEDA includes two sub areas that we will refer to as south of Jensen and east of Temperance. South of Jensen includes the area generally bound by Miniwawa on the west, north to the south, Temperance to the east and Jensen to the north. East of Temperance includes the area generally bound by the Briggs Canal on the north and east, Jensen on the south, and Temperance on the west. As directed by the city council, the South Seda area is proposed as phase one with development prohibited in all other areas until certain thresholds have been met. And we will discuss those thresholds a bit further in this presentation. So now we will discuss how the SEDA specific plan implements the goals and objectives identified in the Fresno general plan. As discussed previously, the current general plan incorporated land use concepts from the previous SEDA plan. The land uses included in the SEDA modified consolidated business park alternative map are very similar, and we'll go into more detail on those land uses a bit later. You will notice that the general plan land use map includes trails while the SEDA map does not. These were quite controversial in the public engagement process. So the decision was made to conduct a parks and trails master plan as a later implementation step to provide a space for more community discussion on the location of parks and trails. The proposed SEDA land use map as directed by council is different from the current general plan land use map and that it includes primarily residential land uses east of Temperance and primarily employment and institutional land uses south of Jensen. And again, this will be discussed a bit further in this presentation. This map shows the different existing neighborhoods and development areas included in the general plan. The various blues in the center with the turquoise blue along the BRT corridors are the existing neighborhoods, while the pink and purple areas around the west and southeast are development or growth areas. SEDA includes two development areas, DA4 East and DA3 Southeast. And these development areas were established to promote and plan for development in areas within city limits first, prior to permitting development in areas along the sphere of influence boundary, such as in the development areas where the SEDA is located. General Plan Table 1-3 is included in the current Fresno General Plan. This table shows housing capacity for the various development areas by 2035. The highlighted lines are for SATA, which includes 14,900 dwelling units by 2035. General Plan Table 1-4 is also included in the current Fresno General Plan. It shows dwelling unit capacity beyond 2035. This table identifies roughly around 45,000 dwelling units of capacity in the SEDA. Fresno General Plan Objectives UF-12 and UF-13 call for a balance of infill and growth, stating roughly half of all residential development to be in both infill and growth areas. Since 2013, housing development in Fresno has been 74% infill and 26% in growth areas. A 2016 city council resolution confirmed commitment to specific planning for both infill and growth areas and identified the sequencing of long range planning documents in the following order as shown on the screen here, beginning with the Southwest Fresno specific plan. In addition to these, the Fulton corridor specific plan the downtown neighborhoods community plan, and the tower district specific plan have also been completed. And again, speaking to the general plan objectives that call for roughly half of all new development in Fresno to be infill, development since adoption of the general plan has been 74% infill and 26% in growth areas. So now we will discuss the SEDA specific plan goals structure and chapters. So as set forth in the general plan, the SEDA plan in its entirety is designed to accommodate 40 to 45,000 dwelling units and 30 to 37,000 jobs. The plan includes fiscal responsibility goals to provide self-financing for future development, in addition to environmental sustainability, providing walkable neighborhoods, and integration and preservation of farming and agriculture, just to name a few. And again, while the goals identified here and subsequent chapters of the specific plan are included in this presentation, they should be evaluated with the understanding that while the plan as a whole is being presented, development will only be permitted in the South Sata areas east of Temperance and south of Jensen at the time of plan adoption. So these are the chapters of the specific plan, and we'll go into a little bit more detail starting with urban form. As discussed in the urban form chapter, the SATA achieves its walkability in complete neighborhoods through a hierarchy of town centers. The major one is a regional town center as shown on the map here as the large red area just south of State Route 180. The lighter red areas on the map are community town centers and the turquoise blue are the neighborhood town centers. Surrounding those are mixed residential in orange and neighborhood residential in yellow. The lighter green north of State Route 180 is the rural residential and covers the existing rural residential development in the area. The light purple is flexible research and development, and the darker purple is office center. The light blue areas are institutional, and the eastern boundary is the rural cluster residential land use that serves as an agricultural buffer between the SATA and the agricultural lands to the east. And we will discuss these land uses in more detail over the next couple slides. Through council direction, the proposed land use map was revised. The consolidated business park alternative land use map was selected with modifications, which redistributed flexible research and development land uses south of Jensen and residential uses east of Temperance. And again, this is an overview of the proposed land use map in its entirety. However, development will only be permitted in the south state areas at time of plan adoption. And here we have an overview of the proposed land uses. These include a hierarchy of mixed use town centers, various residential uses and employment and institutional uses. To implement the plan, a new chapter of the development code will be required, which will further identify how these land uses will work. And it should also be mentioned that existing uses that were legally established at the time of plan adoption may continue in perpetuity. So here we have the town centers. The regional town center will feature SEDA region serving retail and office activity, as well as medium and higher density housing. The regional town center is the primary mixed use employment center, retail destination and host to major cultural attractions in the SEDA. Community town centers will support the daily commercial and business needs of SEDA neighborhoods and neighborhood town centers will accommodate local serving retail, civic and educational uses moving into the residential land uses the mixed residential and neighborhood residential land uses support the town centers and the retail unemployment centers that are located there these land uses are transit supportive and conducive to creating housing choice and walkable complete communities There are also two lower density residential uses, rural residential, which mostly applies to the existing rural residential development, and rural cluster, which is within the buffer area along the eastern boundary of the plan area. There are three employment and institutional land uses in the SEDA plan. The office center land use is intended to support office and business related uses in addition to compatible commercial uses such as retail. The flexible research and development land uses are intended to contain advanced manufacturing and green technology uses and institutional land uses are intended to include K through 12 schools and university or state community college functions while providing a limited but compatible series of commercial uses. Chapter 3 focuses on housing choice and affordability. Housing policies in the SEDA-specific plan call for a diverse range of housing types to further support goals and policies in the Fresno General Plan housing element. In addition to the mixed-use town center framework and higher densities proposed in the SEDA plan facilitate a diversity of housing options. Chapter four of the SEDA plan focuses on open space, schools, and public facilities. Notable policies include future adoption of a parks and trails master plan to plan the best location for parks and trails. Community farming and agriculture are a continued pillar of the SEDA plan. The plan incorporates the Fresno County right to farm ordinance, which allows for the continued operations of normal farm activities near or around other uses. In addition, the plan includes a policy to further support properties with Williamson Act contracts and will not facilitate early termination of those contracts. The SEDA plan also incorporates policies that conserve water and energy, such as promoting compact mixed use land use patterns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, incorporate low impact development practices, and integrate water supply, treatment, delivery, and planning practices. With the SEDA plan, the city has an opportunity to pursue economic development strategies that synergize new development potential and become a hub for agricultural technology and clean energy. In addition, the SEDA plan is projected to accommodate up to 37,000 jobs and includes a focus on flexible research and development land uses to facilitate uses in industries such as advanced manufacturing and green technology. I'd also like to discuss some key topic areas as it relates to regulations that would apply to properties within the SEDA. The annexed rural residential transitional overlay as established in Fresno municipal code section 15-1606 allows continued rural residential use of properties upon annexation to the city. Any existing legally established use on a rural residential property can remain in perpetuity. This policy is currently included in the specific plan today. And regarding legal non-conforming uses and structures, Fresno Municipal Code Article 4 permits the continued use of structures, site features, lots, and land uses that were created lawfully prior to adoption of the Development Code. This also applies to legally established uses or structures prior to annexation into the city. These uses or structures may be continued indefinitely until such a time the property is redeveloped. I also wanted to mention policies that have been added to this specific plan, which clarify connection requirements to city services. Specific Plan Policy UF-3.5 requires the creation of a community benefit fund which would pay for residential connections to city services. As shown on the screen here, Specific Plan Policies UF-3.6 through 3.8 establish timing and requirements for connection to city services based on when and if city services are available. When required or needed, property owners will have five years to connect to city services if they are available to serve the property. If city services are not available, property owners can continue use of existing water wells and septic tanks. And now we will move on to the environmental impact report. I do want to note, we have our environmental consultant online, Laura Campion from First Carbon Solutions that is available to answer any technical EIR related questions. But similar to the overview we provided earlier in the presentation, I'd also like to provide an overview on environmental impact reports, otherwise known as EIRs and when they are required. The California Environmental Quality Act, otherwise known as CEQA, requires state and local agencies to evaluate and disclose potential environmental impacts of a proposed project. As required, EIRs evaluate and disclose any impacts the proposed project may have and identify ways to minimize those potential impacts through what are called mitigation measures. An EIR is required in cases where a project will have a significant or unavoidable impact on the environment. This means that despite feasible mitigation measures, impacts still exceed certain thresholds. There are a variety of environmental impact categories required to be analyzed in EIRs, such as air quality and greenhouse gases, biological resources, transportation, noise, water, cultural and tribal resources, land use, hazardous materials, public services and utilities, agricultural resources, and aesthetics. These documents are required by CEQA to be circulated to the public and public agencies for review and public comment. In compliance with CEQA, an environmental impact report was prepared for the Southeast Development Area Specific Plan. And to provide a bit more context, the SEDA specific plan does not permit a specific development project and rather is a plan for the area. So environmental impacts are analyzed in this document at a higher level. As individual projects are proposed in the SEDA, they will each be required to prepare an environmental analysis that evaluates any potential project level impacts. And as you can see here, the CETA EIR was circulated and recirculated to the public and public agencies in 2023 and 2025 for review and comment. So now we will review a couple of the environmental impact areas, starting with air quality. Some mitigation measures applied to the plan level EIR were to provide technical air quality assessments for operational and construction related impacts. Regarding greenhouse gas emissions, projects are required to demonstrate compliance with the California Air Resources Board scoping plan. Some VMT mitigation measures include pedestrian and bicycle network improvements and establishing transportation demand management programs and policies. Regarding water supply, projects are required to prepare a water supply analysis for new development and implement water conservation measures, just to name a few. Farmland mitigation measures include preserving an equivalent type and quantity of land at a one to one ratio through a recreation of a conservation easement or other instrument. And as we discussed previously, an EIR is required when environmental impacts cannot be mitigated to a level identified as less than significant. In this case, the SAIDA EIR did identify impacts whose mitigation measures would still exceed impact thresholds in the following topic areas for aesthetics, light and glare, agricultural resources and forestry resources, air quality and noise. All other impact areas analyzed in the SETA EIR were either less than significant or able to incorporate mitigation measures to reduce those impacts. As a requirement of CEQA, an EIR is required to analyze the impacts of a no project alternative to compare the impacts of approving the project versus the impacts of not approving the project. The no project alternative analysis must discuss the existing conditions and what would be reasonably expected to occur in the foreseeable future. If the project were then not approved based on current plans. If the SATA specific plan is not approved, development could still occur according to the general plan land uses as shown on the map here. The current general plan land use would allow for 17,900 homes and 29,000 jobs and does not propose any phasing or threshold requirements in order for development to occur. Development applications would and could be filed with the County of Fresno. As discussed in the previous slide, the no project alternative is simply the general plan land uses which exist today. It does not mean that no development would occur. As shown here, the consolidated business park alternative was identified as the environmentally superior alternative. This alternative consolidates flexible research and development land uses into the southern portion of the SEDA and residential uses east of Temperance. Through council direction, the consolidated business park alternative was selected as the proposed land use map with modifications. The SEDA EIR also analyzed the farmland conservation alternative. The farmland conservation alternative conserves a total of 648 acres of farmland in the SEDA and would limit uses in the buffer to agricultural uses. And as discussed previously, the consolidated business park alternative consolidates the flexible research and development uses South of Jensen and redistributes residential uses East of temperance in order to address council direct direction to redistribute office and institutional land uses to buffer the existing Lone Star Elementary School located in the South Sata area, south of Jensen. The consolidated business park alternative was modified and ultimately selected as the proposed land use map. In addition, the red boundary identifies the South Sata area, which is proposed as phase one. Development is only permitted in the South Sata area at the time of plan adoption. And now we will discuss the planning process for the SEDA plan. Since 2021, the city has hosted numerous public outreach events in addition to workshops and presentations to the planning commission and city council. Between 2022 and 2023, eight public meetings were held in addition to stakeholder interviews regarding this specific plan in EIR to provide the public opportunities to gain information regarding the plan in EIR. These meetings garnered a combined attendance upwards of 450 individuals. Most recently, the EIR and specific plan were presented to the planning commission and city council in November and December of 2025. The city received public comment during each of the public meetings, common questions on the specific plan included annexation concerns and land use changes on private property with environmental related comments, focusing on air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, availability of water resources and preservation of agricultural lands. As mentioned, the EIR and specific plan were presented to the Planning Commission and City Council in November and December of 2025. The Planning Commission recommended certification of the EIR and approval of the specific plan with amendments to incorporate EIR alternatives. The City Council referred the item back to staff, to make policy revisions, provide an updated fiscal analysis, evaluate and select the consolidated business park alternative with modifications and to establish thresholds and phasing for future development in the plan area. The specific plan was revised in response to comments received and council direction. Some of these revisions include, selection of the consolidated business park alternative with modifications as the proposed land use map south sata as phase one and establish thresholds limiting future development and policy revisions to establish buffers surrounding lone star elementary to clarify connections to sewer and water and establish further protections for existing rural residential activities The following threshold and phasing requirements have been established as part of the specific plan. Before development can be permitted in a future reserve area, 75% of the residential land uses in the current phase must be developed and occupied. This shall be measured by 75% of the total acreage dedicated for residential land uses in each phase. Once 75% of the residential land use is developed and occupied, a new supplemental EIR and financing analysis will be required to analyze future environmental impacts and costs associated with development in the next identified future reserve area. This shall be initiated by and at the responsibility of the City of Fresno. This also includes selection of boundaries for future reserve areas to identify where future development should occur. Following completion of a supplemental EIR and fiscal analysis for the next development area, Council could schedule a voter referendum to approve the next area ready for development. After Council directed the selection of the Consolidated Business Park Alternative as the proposed land use map with modifications, the EIR was then reviewed to ensure modifications fell within the scope of the current EIR. The EIR was updated to include minor revisions to incorporate the selected Consolidated Business Park Alternative land use map with modifications, which as stated earlier, was identified as the environmentally superior alternative. And just to touch on next steps, tonight's presentation, as mentioned previously, was a workshop for informational purposes and is not a public hearing. The public hearing for this item will be held on August 19th at six o'clock p.m. at City Hall. And that concludes our presentation for this evening. Staff is available to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Do commissioners have any questions?

I have a question about that community benefit fund and where the funding for that fund will come from.

Commissioner, so the council would need to take action on how that would be addressed, right? So they will have the opportunity to do that coming up in the future. But at this point in time, the plan simply says that one would need to be created.

Are there any other questions or comments? Yes.

have a question about uh you know with this plan will this plan impact the developments that are happening in downtown fresno i know there's a lot of uh development is about to happen west side west of you know west side of you know by the new city college um also west of 99 tower district and all the plans so will those any of those plans lose any money for the new plan

Yes, so the general plan calls for roughly half of new development to be infill and in growth areas. We shared on the screen earlier there was a 2016 city council resolution which established the sequencing for various specific plans that were both in infill and growth areas to be completed. With that, the infill plans were prioritized and completed. with the southeast development area specific plan to occur after the time at which those plans had been completed. The plans that have been adopted, including the Southwest Fresno Specific Plan, Fulton Corridor Specific Plan, Tower District Specific Plan, and West Area Neighborhood Specific Plan, in addition to the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan, have all already been adopted prior by the city council. So adoption of the specific plan does not affect these plans, which have already been adopted and are currently in place today.

So with the new plan, you know, there will be sewer, you know, we would definitely need a sewer system. Like there's going to be a lot of improvements that needs to happen in that, like in that area. So do we have the capacity right now? Or like, where is that money is going to come from? Like who is going to, is the city paying for it? Or are we charging the developers? Like who, like where is the money at?

Yes. So the environmental impact report did analyze current capacity and needs We did do a water supply assessment, which identified current water capacity levels. We did identify through those analyses that we do currently have capacity to serve future development in the plan area as well. We also have staff from our Department of Public Utilities that may be able to answer more specific related service need questions. But those impacts were analyzed as part of the environmental impact report.

and uh there has been a lot of like you know last time we had the meeting there like the public had a lot of concern like the public like people who live in the area people who will be impacted by this like are those um um have all the ants have all the concern like all the concerns that that came upon the the planning department or the city um have have they been answered

Yeah, absolutely. So we did, as, as mentioned, receive numerous public comments regarding concerns, um, you know, as it pertains to the specific plan. And there were a number of plan and policy changes that we did make in response to those concerns. Um, you know, concerns regarding existing rural residential development, um, policy 3.3 and the specific plan does identify, what we call our annexed rural residential transitional overlay. It establishes protections for rural residential properties that are annexed into the city of Fresno. That is a policy that is currently in our specific plan. And then we did add to that policy to clarify where there is a conflict with any legally established use in Fresno County regulations. between city and county regulations. Any legally and lawfully established use through Fresno County would remain in the event that there is a conflict in our development code. Those uses can remain in perpetuity so long as the property is not redeveloped. In addition, we did hear concerns regarding costs over connection fees to city services. Policy 3.5, which is noted on page 26 of the specific plan, did establish the requirement for creation of a community benefit fund, which would pay for those rural residential connections to city services. Clarifications were also added to the connection of city service requirements. So that's located on pages 26 and 27 of the specific plan policies, UF 3.6 to 3.8. So that actually clarifies when a property would be required to connect to city services in the event that those are available and are not available. So those policies do actually address those concerns. And then in addition, those, threshold and phasing requirements. And we've heard concerns regarding the entire plan area, including the full 9,000 acres. You know, in development, we establish what we call future reserve areas. Those are areas located outside of the South SEDA area. And then establishing those thresholds to clarify that only development at time adoption could be able to occur within phase one, which is South SEDA. And then establishing all of those thresholds and phasing requirements before development could occur in any future reserve area.

Thank you.

I have a question about the connections, the water and the sewer. The community fund would pay so the sewers or the waters along the road, is it considered to be paid to where it hooks up to the home or are they gonna pay that on their own?

So the, the idea behind the community benefit fund is that the four rural residential connections that the homeowner does not bear the cost at all of those connections.

Thank you. Are there any other questions? Okay. Well, thank you, Adrian and Israel. That was a good presentation. We appreciate it. So we'll move on to the report by the secretary.

Good evening, Planning Commission. I would like to welcome our new Planning Commissioner, Mr. Joseph Giles, who is joining us for his first meeting tonight. Thank you. And we are very pleased to also announce that we have another Planning Commissioner who is a returning Planning Commissioner, Commissioner Jamie Holt. She was unable to be here tonight, but will be here in two weeks. So we will have a full planning commission again. I know that that's been a concern for this body. So we are looking forward to quite a bit of work ahead of us over the next couple of meetings. But again, welcome to our new commissioners and thank you for your service.

Do we have any unscheduled oral communications? Is anyone in the public? Okay, then I'll adjourn the meeting. Thank you for coming.